


A Realistic Jurassic World

by Gemm30199



Category: Jurassic World (2015)
Genre: F/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-26
Updated: 2018-02-02
Packaged: 2018-11-19 08:01:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 41,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11309139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gemm30199/pseuds/Gemm30199
Summary: Basically how relationships would work at Jurassic World if the characters were actual normal human beings who were selfish, slept around, and had raging commitment issues.Emily Wilson is the lead T-Rex trainer and dinosaur behaviourist at the park, she was adored by the bosses at control room for her revolutionary work done in rehabilitation - having trained the T-Rex and single handedly reinvigorated the public's interest in the T-Rex kingdom. When the news gets out about a new genetically modified dinosaur, all eyes turn to Emily to help train this highly dangerous killing machine.(Movie events altered significantly at the beginning but will eventually come to the same finale as the movie)





	1. Chapter One - Fuck you, Henry Wu!

When I left University at 21, I decided that I would _never_ work with the public as a customer service person ever again. Getting shouted at every weekend wasn't worth the measly wage I earned to support myself during my studies. When I graduated, I took a vow - never again would I put myself through that.

Fastforward to 5 years later - I am the Lead T-Rex trainer and Veterinary Behaviourist here at Jurassic World, and yet here I am, being yelled at by a woman who was highly dissatified with my T-Rex show because her child was disturbed by the way Rex ate the goat.

"With all due resect Ma'am, we explicitly warn attendees that the T-Rex feeding show can be very graphic and is not suitable for both young children and some adults. We ensure that this warning is repeated several times, both by the tannoy anouncements and the signs all over this viewing platform-"

"Well how is my child supposed to enjoy Jurassic World when he can't watch any of the shows?" she asked, adjusting her stance and folding her arms across her chest.

"Well, he _obviously_ isn't supposed to be attending the Park at such a young age, not all children-"

"Excuse me?! My husband and I paid a lot of money to be here today, so we will all be enjoying this godforsaken park! How dare you be so rude as to tell us we cannot be here!" Her husband was a small balding man, looking at me with eyes that seemed to say 'I'm sorry, please save me, I haven't expressed an opinion of my own in years', "Where is your supervisor? I would like to report a complaint."

"I never said that you shouldn't be here, but not all of Jurassic World's attractions are suitable for the whole family, perhaps your son would prefer the Gentle Giants interactive show-"

"Where. is. Your. Manager." she spoke through gritted teeth, honestly it was like someone had picked me up and dropped me 7 years in the past to when I worked the till at Topshop. Never before had I got the chance to say this though...

"Ma'am, I am the manager", in my head my 19 year old self was applauding me. "I am the lead trainer here, and I am deeply apologetic for any inconvenience me and my dinosaur may have caused, but unfortunately all the signs and warnings were in plain view for you to read."

The woman sighed, clearly still annoyed but unsure of what to do. "Whatever, just know that I will never come back to see this T-Rex! Ever! Not even if my life depended on it!"

"Well that's a shame, but I'm sure both me and Rex will still sleep soundly tonight" I said with a sickly, sweet smile. Granted that wasn't the best thing to say, and I'm sure if anyone from Human Resources was stood next to me my ass would be in that office getting a disciplinary for impolite behaviour.

"Whatever. Fuck this, Jerry. We are going" she said, taking her son by his arm and walking away from the viewing platform, "c'mon Andy, lets go see the Mosasaurs feeding shall we..."

I thought I was past this degrading customer service work, but alas - I am not. One day its an angry mother complaining, another day its parents screaming at me because I didn't take their kids question, or tourists getting angry at me because they can't see Rex in her enclosure. What was I supposed to do about that?!

The job did have its perks though, and I am grateful every single day that I get to work with mother natures most amazing creatures, _and_ get a tan at the same time. I got headhunted by Jurassic World after publishing a number of research papers about Scientific invention and how it relates to the psyche of previously extinct animals, aka, "We should talk about the Dinos and how do they feel about essentially living 75 million years in the future?". After Uni I went straight to work at various zoos in the UK, writing papers about the work I did and how I improved the lives of many animals. Apparently rehabilitating a few Lions to be more friendly and less aggressive towards the other animals and the guests, translates to 'Perfect Dinosaur Trainer'.

When I got the call from Mr Masrani, he told me they were looking to expand the T-Rex exhibit and so required my assistance in making sure the animals were able to coexist as happily as possible. He told me they wanted two Rex's to live in the same enclosure and I laughed down the phone at him, to this day I am astounded to how I got a job and he didn't mark me down as a cocky-know-it-all. Suffice to say I had a lot of work to do at the park, when I first started it was non-stop Dino analysis. Turns out the people that run the park are great at making them and great at making them into billion dollar exhibits, but they are not so good at remembering that they are actual living breathing things that require just as much love and affection as any domesticated animal. Rex was the OG T-Rex, and was surprisingly easy to train, I thought it would be tricky after all she's been through but I think age and circumstances have mellowed her. She was my bestie for a long time, I didn't really have time to socialise when I started as I had so much to do, we really relied on each other for companionship.

Luckily I was done with feeding shows for today, and had the rest of the afternoon to do all the little jobs I needed to do. Thankfully the Costa Rican sun wasn't too harsh at 5pm and allowed me to get things done without having to take Sun Cream breaks every half an hour. First things first, check on Rex. I walked down the 'Employees Only' stairway leading me to the area beneath the viewing platform. Before I started I was allowed to inspect the enclosure and the engineers would make any alterations I requested, so Rex got her outdoor enclosure expanding with more shrubbery to make it more natural. Before I started it was basically a patch of trees with strategic clear areas close to the viewing platforms so the guests could get good photo opportunities. Also I requested more access points for animals to be let into the enclosure, rather than having just one next to the platform. Lastly, a small section of the concrete wall in the 'basement' as I call it, would be knocked out and sturdy solid bars would replace it. it was important to me to have an area where there was no glass and I could talk to Rex easily, she could hear my voice clearly and get acquainted to my scent.

All seemed fine at the enclosure and the guests seemed to be getting lots of great pictures of her as she immediately came to the bars which I had placed beneath one of the viewing areas. She came up to me, rumbling the earth and rattling the glass panes in the enclosure, and began to sniff at me while I checked on some stats on the PC nearby. Previously in the day I had covered a show in the Gentle Giants as a member of staff had to be hospitalised for X-rays after slipping in dino shit and cracking a few ribs, so Rex was probably smelling the Triceratops that wouldn't leave my side.

"It's just a little Triceratops, Rex, don't get jealous" I said, she had started emitting a low rumbling in annoyance, "Hey don't start with that shit, Rex-" She was crouched low to the ground and was straining as hard as she could to try and get closer to me, growling and baring her teeth. I knew this wasn't in aggression towards me, purely jealously. It happens with dogs and basically all animals, despite the worried murmurs of the crowd above me, I was in no panic.

The growling got louder as I was ignoring Rex, "Hey" I snapped, turning to face her, arms crossed with a scowl on my face, "don't give me that shit, I'm not in the mood today! Stop, BAD GIRL!" Sure enough, she turned her back and sulked back to the trees. Not wanting to leave in a fight, I shouted her back. "Hey Rexxy, c'mon here" I whistled and clicked my fingers to get her attention. She came back and she pushed her snout against the bars again, I softly stroked her and pressed my face against what I could of her snout.

After I left the enclosure I took my car and set off towards the laboratory. I had been employed at the park for about 8 months now and there had been no progress made in the creation of the new T-Rex. I was excited to actually start doing what I was hired for but the longer I worked here the further away the prospect of actually having a tiny lil' dino seemed. To me it felt like the lab wasn't as excited about the T-Rex anymore, as if there was something better they were using their resources for, and I was determined to find out was the issue was.

This time in the afternoon was a quiet time for the lab as most tourists had retired to Margarita-Land for a night of food and bevs. I approached the main lab and asked around for Henry Wu. When I finally found him he was coming out of some kind of restricted room.

"Hi Henry, how's you day been?" I asked, trying to start the encounter politely before unleashing my pent up annoyance about my missing dino baby.

"Fine thankyou, Emily. How can I help you today?" he replied, leading me to his office (not so much leading but I took it upon myself to invite myself into his office).

"Listen," taking a seat and glancing at another chair so he knew to sit down, "it's about this new T-Rex Henry. I _need_ to know why there has been no progress made on the new asset." Henry sighed and was clearly unwilling to answer the question honestly, so I pushed further, "The T-Rex exhibit has flourished since I have been here, can you imagine the coverage and how much excitement we could pull in from a new T-Rex?"

"Look, I know we promised to make a new T-Rex, but the budget-"

"Henry no don't give me that same old rubbish, this is Jurassic World! Mr Masrani never cares about budgets, he wants to teach people humility and a new T-Rex can help do that! You _guys_ hired me for a reason and you haven't held up your side of the bargain! You've seen all the work I've done with those animals, the guests are amazed at how close me and Rex are. The kind of imprinting I would do on a new dinosaur would be like nothing Jurassic world has never seen before! You made a promise and you haven't stuck to it, so I want to know why. I _deserve_ to know why."

Henry sighed and simply stared at the Amber ornaments on his desk for a few minutes. "Okay. You have been a very valuable addition to the team here at the Park, and I feel like you could be helpful with some of the new assets we will be introducing-"

"Why haven't I heard about these new assets before, there hasn't been any advertising at all!"

"Well this is a... _different_ type of asset" Henry smirked, "That is why it has been classified for the past few months. We have been putting all of our time and energy into perfecting this asset and making sure it's perfect for the reveal."

"So what kind of dinosaur is it, and why do you think that is more important than a damn T-Rex?" I laughed, leaning back in my chair and feeling slightly better now that I had gotten some kind of answer from Henry.

"Well, because _it is_. It is our first genetically modified dinosaur; a hybrid of the most impressive dinosaurs, it has already made us billions of dollars on just investments alone." Henry smiled, obviously excited about this new invention.

"WHAT?!" I was furious. "You made a _genetically modified_ dinosaur?! Why the _fuck_ would you do that, they are dinosaurs - that's impressive enough!" I stood up from my chair, slamming it back under the desk. "You of all people Henry, why?! You know how unpredictable genetic modification can be, why would you risk it?!"

"This new asset will boost the park's revenue by billions each year, not to mention the opportunities it will create for the us to branch out. This is not a decision that can be negotiated, this is way above your paygrade, I don't know why I told you in the first place-"

"If you think for _one second_ I will put a single minute of my time into that dinosaur then you are sadly mistaken, because I'm telling you now that this is all going to crumble around you. You think you're an innovator but you're not, you've gone mad with power and think you have this heroic duty to play with unpredictable forces of nature!! I want nothing to do with this!" I stormed from the room, knocking one of the Amber ornaments from the desk and sending it shattering to the floor.

I was livid and I knew I wouldn't be the only one, if this got out people would flip their shit. I was angry all the way to my car and all the way to my bungalow. This was ridiculous and I prayed that this new 'asset' was still in the infancy phase, there would still be time to shape its character and make sure it wasn't a complete monster. Henry said this was classified, so who could I tell without them thinking I had gone out of my way to get this information? I can't say anything to Mr Masrani, with all the money he has invested in that dinosaur he will think that deadly and interesting will just serve to make more money. Claire Dearing will think I've snuck into the lab or something or done some illegal action to get this secret information. Honestly, FUCK Henry Wu and everything that he does, he knew this information would trap me that's why he told me.

It was bad enough to find out the Park was running secret experiments on Raptors, and only decided to get my advice and opinion on their mental state 3 months into the project. Those poor raptors had been in the hands of InGen's security team, and they had no issues with pushing them past their limits and using them in evil ways. On the day I finally visited the Raptors I was happy with the way they were being treated and they seemed to be developing healthy relationships easily, I met with a trainer called Barry and he showed a true appreciation for the creatures. Him and the lead trainer/alpha Owen were the frontrunners of the project, he had told me how InGen were constantly pushing to use the Raptors in field tests, but they always said no as they understood how much of a stupid idea it was.

It was 11pm by the time I stopped pacing around my tiny bungalow, so I decided to have a quiet night in since I had a 5am start. In the mood I was in, food had never crossed my mind, what Henry told me had made me sick to my stomach and I couldn't possibly eat anything until I decided what to do about the situation. Contemplating the consequences of telling Barry about what I had been told, I took my makeup off from the day (most of it had sweated off from the heat) and brushed out my short brown hair. Henry had said that this information was way above my paygrade and so it was definitely way above Barry's too, and I didn't know how confident he'd be helping me fight this. I've heard that Barry only ever expressed his opinion after Owen had already caused a scene, he would never say something on his own. I sent him a text anyway saying would come and visit the Raptors first thing in the morning for a follow-up analysis, and then watched Netflix on my couch until I fell asleep.


	2. Chapter Two - Field Tests?

I did not sleep well. My mind was still reeling from the previous day's events. I woke up on the couch at 1 am and I made my way to my actual bed. My mind thinking of all the worst possible scenarios that could occur should something happen with this new dinosaur. I decided to give up trying to sleep around 4am, and got ready to go for a run around the lake to try and clear my mind.

My house was located in a quiet bay of the lake, I was allowed to choose the location myself and had to live in the Hotel for a few months while they built it. Staff also have the option of having a trailer should they need it, most staff enjoy having the extra space to do what they want with. Some convert it to another bedroom, some use it as a workshop, some use it as an office. I had decided to use mine mainly as an office as I was still keen on writing up my research papers whenever I had the spare time, but I also put a bed in there for if I ever had a guest (aka. some nights I work so late writing that I can't be arsed walking to my proper house so I put a bed in my office so I could crash in there - I sure as shit am never going to have a guest).

At this time in the morning the park was quiet, typically you could hear the rumbles of the dinosaurs but today it was silent. It was still really dark and the sun had not yet started to rise, I enjoyed the watching what was left of the moonlight dance across the water of the lake as I jogged around the outside. Many of the staff chose to live away from the park and stay at the Hotel during the week and travel home every weekend. The ones that decided to take advantage of the beautiful park picked the lake as a good place to set up their home. It was so large that we could all have our own secluded area without stepping on eachothers toes. A lot of people take to the coast so they can enjoy their days off away from all the noise of the park and the attractions. Mr Masrani had always made a point of making sure staff were comfortable on the island, he understood the dedication it took to uproot your entire life and move to this one little island. He always was able to get us discounts on hotels in Costa Rica as he owned many of them, making it easy for us to have family to visit.

Around 5am I returned to my house and showered, washing off the sweat and grime from the morning run - even in the early hours of the morning the island was uncomfortably warm and the running didn't help the situation. I made sure to apply plenty of sun cream before getting dressed and applied lots of oil to the scars on my side from when I first went into the cage with Rex. It was going well until someone dropped the barrow of food and the loud noise spooked her a little; she kicked me into the wall. As badass as the scars were, I didnt want them to be as prominent. I dressed in my typical attire - beige mid-thigh cargo shorts, combat boots, white tank top and a beige shirt with the park logo on the back (I would wear this unbuttoned over my vest for as long as I could stand the extra layer). The uniform regulations weren't very strict on account of the heat, it was up to the staff to choose the most suitable attire based on the activities they would be doing during the day, as long as we wore our ID badge they weren't really bothered.

I toyed with the idea of not going to the raptor cage and keeping the information about the new asset to myself, but for the sake of my own sanity I decided to not be a pussy and just tell someone. First I went to see Rex and check on the data that was captured during the night, we keep track of her sleeping patterns and things such as the paddock temperature, air circulation and other fun stuff. She was already up and walking through the trees when I first arrived so she didn't bother me while I was checking the data. Another trainer had joined me by the time I had finished, her name was Alyssa and she was transferred from the ankylosaurus team after deciding that she wanted to be more upclose and personal with the animals, she was intrigued by the training I was doing and I thought she would be a great person to oversee the paddock while I wasn't there. She had already led a cow into one of the holding cages and was now stood next to me waiting for me to get Rex's attention.

The first feed of the morning is typically a large meal since she gets fed small goats during the day. I whistled and called for her and watched as the trees swayed and rustled as she stormed through them. When she made it to the bars Alyssa took a step back so Rex understood that I was the one she needed to listen to, I found that when we stood next to each other Rex expected us to both give her commands and so always faltered when I said something as she was waiting for Alyssa to say something too.

"Morning girl, did you sleep well?" I smiled, stroking her snout through the bars, "I've got a treat for you this morning but I need you to be a good girl for me today."

Rex omitted a low grumbling and I took that as a 'yes'. "Alright eyes on me," I said clicking a pen to get her full attention, "stand tall..." her chest puffed out slightly and she stood tall as I told her to, "alright, release the cow."

Alyssa opened the cage via the PC and Rex immediately snapped her head to the sound of the metal door sliding. "Hey eyes on me!" I said sternly clicking the pen again, the cow was now mooing and I knew Rex wouldn't be able to wait much longer, "steady... waaait... okay GO!" Rex took off with a sprint into the trees and not long after that the cow could be heard mooing in a more panicked manor. Rex enjoyed having the live prey to hunt rather than always having goats tied to a pole, I like to keep her entertained as much as I could - unfortunately I couldn't exactly play fetch with her.

"Good job Emily, it amazes me every time you talk to her like that." Alyssa chuckled, walking over to the couch we have in the 'control room'.

"Hey you talk to her just the same don't forget that, you're just as much of a badass as I am" I laughed, standing opposite to where she was and leaning against the desk, "By the way I'm going to be out today, I've got some work to do over at the raptor enclosure."

"Oh shit, really? We have people from head office coming to visit today, didn't you get the email yesterday?" she said looking nervous. I had to go to see Barry today so she was just going to have to manage on her own. "They wanted to check up on how the multiple feeding cages have been going"

"Did they say they wanted to speak to me explicitly?"

"Well no but-"

"Well then buddy you can manage on your own. You know all about the feeding cages, tell them about what we just did. Rex has improved significantly since we had those put in and you know that, you know all about Rex and I trust that you can talk them through that on your own. This is your job right? I've trained you well, you're not an assistant to me, you don't have to always rely on me to do these meetings with higher ups" I tried saying this as nicely as I could, but Alyssa did tend to rely on me to deal with all the shit from Head office on my own since I am the lead trainer, and to be honest it was getting annoying.

"Yeah... I suppose you're right. I can ramble my way through their questions I guess" she chuckled, nervously running her hands through her hair. "But what if Rex doesn't come to me when I shout her and they get mad?"

"If they are just coming to see the cages there is no reason for them to want to see her up close, and if she doesn't come you tell her the same thing we tell the guests when they make a fuss about not being able to see her, okay? If there is anything you cannot answer and they want to talk to me, tell them I'm working at the Raptor paddock and they can call me whenever they want. And I want you to ring me when they leave and tell me how it went" I say standing up from the desk and picking up my keys and phone from next to the desk and left, making my way outside to where I parked my car. Alyssa still looked concerned but I had to leave, she would manage on her own.

The T-Rex team consisted of me and Alyssa, two paddock supervisors, three paddock maintenance workers and a number of nightshift workers. As it stands the T-Rex is the most popular asset in the park (of those the visitors can actually visit), and so we have a good strong team of people to make sure everything ran smoothly.

I pulled up to the security gates and flashed my badge before continuing the drive down the gravel path to the raptor enclosure. I pulled up at around 6:30am so there weren't many people around, mainly the people from the night shift and a few maintenance guys who had just arrived and were preparing the morning feed. The screeches from the raptors signalled that they were wide awake and ready for a day of training, I walked up to the fence and watched them for a while before going to find Barry.

It was always weird visiting the raptors, it was such a different dynamic than what I was used to with Rex. Rex and I were our own alphas, we depended on each other for companionship. It was not about control, Rex was not at my beck-and-call, she was very much her own being and I was the one person that just happened to be able to affect her behaviour. But these raptors had such a clear and strong hierarchy and were willing to take orders from a human. I made a mental note to bring up some territorial behaviour, Charlie seemed to growl whenever one of her sisters got close to an area near the cage door, she wasn't guarding it but was clearly annoyed whenever someone else got close.  
Finally I motivated myself to move from the fence when the staff began to ready the food. I spotted Barry near one of the office buildings and shouted him.

"Hey Barry! Wait up" I said jogging over to him, he was always overly friendly and greeted me with a hug.

"Hi Emily, everything okay?" he asked, "You think the raptors are okay?"

"Yeah they seem fine, you and Owen should keep an eye on Charlie, she seems to be getting territorial over an area near the cage doors. But that's not what I'm visiting for..." I pondered with the idea of telling Barry about the confidential dinosaur; consequences and disciplinary's ran through my mind, was this worth risking my job over? They might have it all under control, this may be the biggest event to happen at the Park, I could be getting all worked up over nothing.

"Everything alright?" Barry asked softly, starting to worry since I hadn't spoke in at least a minute.

"Ugh, yeah" I ran my hands through my hair and sighed. "It's just that theres-"

"PIG LOOSE!" screamed a voice from the walkway. Heads turned and all eyes were there to see a young man no older than twenty get pulled over the railing and drop into the enclosure.

Barry and I sprinted over to the cage doors, lead trainer Owen had appeared from the walkway stairs and was running with us to the door. He slammed his hand on the buttons to open the cage doors, "HOLD YOUR FIRE. HOLD YOUR FIRE!" he screamed to the security guards who were running along the walkway with non-lethals.

The raptors had gathered around the fallen man, he crawled slowly backwards until he was behind Owen, the growls getting louder. The raptors were making their way closer to Owen and the man, I dove under the door slightly and helped carry him back to safety, he was clearly injured.

"I see you Delta. Back up!" Owen had been controlling the raptors and giving them orders, his arms spread and knees bent so he matched their height better. Delta screeched at him and the others hissed, "Okay. Close the gate please"

"Are you crazy?!" screamed Barry.

"Just trust me..."

"Close the gate!!" shouted the man, still hunched on the floor, clearly terrified.

Barry pushed the button to close the door. Owen waited until the gap in the door seemed impossibly narrow, before running back and rolling under the cage door. The girls darted to the door as it closed and collided with the metal bars, still growling, teeth bared and claws scraping against the metal.

Everyone was tense, hearts racing and breath heavy. Owen and Barry exchanged laugh and patted each other on the backs, all I could think about was what a shitty day I picked to come and visit. The young man was still huddled on the floor, he didn't realise Blue had her face pressed against the bars behind him, straining her neck to get closer to him.

"Hey, don't ever turn your back to the cage." I said nonchalantly, nodding my head towards the raptor. He jumped and his eyes went wide, the Raptor retreated.

"You're the new kid right?" Owen said, turning to me and the man after Barry left, he nodded - still exhaling rapidly, "you ever wonder why there was an opening?" he said before walking away, leaving the man with his mouth agape and eyes as wide as dinner plates.

I looked down at the kid sympathetically and then followed Owen out the cage, "That's right, Owen - terrify the kid so he quits. Great idea." I said sarcastically, walking in step with him.

He laughed and turned to me, "That's not what I'm trying to do, I just want him to think about this in the future so he doesn't make the same mistake again."

"Oh I'm pretty sure he'll remember this" I laughed, "I don't think he'll ever fucking forget!"

He laughed along with me, until he realised that it was strange that I was there. I hadn't visited the paddock about a month or so, and me and him weren't exactly the best of friends. He had always been someone that I had heard stories about and I knew about the work he had been doing but I had never really spoke to him outside of work.

"Is there a reason you're here today? Are the girls doing alright?" he came to a stop and turned to look at me. He was clearly concerned about his raptors and it was obvious he loved those animals. I thought back to how he handled the situation and how he pleaded the guards not tranq the raptors, their trust was the most important thing to him.

"Oh yeah they're fine, there's just one thing I've mentioned to Barry about some territorial behaviour from Charlie-"

"Well, y'know..." he said, a smirk appeared on his face and he folded his arms across him broad chest, "I am the alpha, I should be the one you are consulting with." His eyes had a hint of mischief to them, I could clearly tell he enjoyed flirting with people, not even to get in their pants but just for fun.

"Well you weren't there so Barry had to do. And to be honest I don't really think I want to partake in this consulting if the rumours I've heard about you are true."

"You're a smart lady, you know that" he laughed, "So what's up, why are you here?"

I thought about what I just witnessed, he clearly cared about the wellbeing of the raptors more than anything, he risked his life by running into that cage. I always heard stories at the control room and from Barry about how feisty he could be when InGen got too close to his girls. Maybe he was the one I needed to talk to...

Before I could say anything, a man had approached us, he wore an InGen badge and I assumed he was the lead of the project, I had heard about him but couldn't remember his name.

"Owen!" he greeted, clamping his hand on Owen's shoulder, he seemed excited but Owen was clearly less than pleased to see him, "That was incredible! What did I tell you about them taking orders from you? They're ready for a field test and you know it!"

"A field test? What the fuck is that about, Owen?" I asked, puzzled.

"And who are you Missy?" the man asked, clearly annoyed at my brashness.

"I'm Emily Wilson, I train the T-Rex and am Veterinary Behaviourist for all assets at the park" I explained, he visibly perked up and seemed intrigued.

"Oh yes... I have heard a lot about you Miss Wilson. Me and you would have met soon enough" he smirked, "My team and I have been very interested in your work, both you and Mr Grady here."

Owen looked about as confused as I was. Why would InGen be interested in my work. It's the same thing Henry Wu had said, maybe InGen were involved with the genetic fuckfest Jurassic World was apparently majoring in.

"But anyway, that's for another time" he smiled devilishly, "But for now, Mr Grady, we need those animals in a field test"

"I've told you before Hoskins, those raptors are not being sent into a war-"

"You want to do WHAT?!" I shouted. I felt like I didn't even know the company I was working for anymore, the new frontiers they were trying to break were more evil and problematic than I ever thought was possible.

Owen chuckled sarcastically, "Oh you have no idea the kind of plans he has for those animals," he shook his head, "- and yours too." he added pointedly.

"Listen. Mother Nature gave us the best weapon 75 million years ago, when a real war breaks out those dinosaurs will lead the attack and save thousands of lives on the ground. Drones and cameras, they can all be hacked - but raptors, they will run into the enemy and eat them. Belt buckle and all." Hoskins said with a smile, as if he had been practising it for months.

I couldn't help but laugh, "You have this pitch down to a tee right? You think you can control those things like goddamn remote controlled toys?! Those animals don't give a shit about war, its easy to tell them what to do when you're dangling a dead rat in front of their face"

"Exactly, he doesn't seem to understand how stupid these ideas are." Owen sighed, clearly he has to deal with this shit all the time.

"You're telling me there's no bond between you and that Rex? I've seen what you do, you're renowned in the park! You're the woman who trained a 20 year old T-Rex! You think this company hired you just to teach that old dinosaur some new tricks, you have no idea what is in store for this company-"

That pissed me off, my blood boiled and my fists clenched with rage.

"You are sadly mistaken if you think that any dinosaur in this park will be used as a weapon on my watch." I said through gritted teeth, stepping between him and Owen and getting in his face, "These animals are NOT for you to treat like replaceable drones, they are living, breathing animals that could eat you and any one of your team when given the right command. You bet your ass that those dinosaurs listen to us, so it would be wise for you and your team to treat them with an ounce of respect. We are the only two people on this island who can tell the two most deadly animals what to do and when to do it, and I refuse to believe that InGen is that stupid to think that any dinosaur will be let loose into a battlefield without our consent."

"Miss Wilson, I-"

"No! You'd be fools to think that you can just come over here and suggest this like it's not the most idiotic idea on the planet." I shouted, my knuckles turning white, "You take one step near that T-Rex and I swear to God..." I took the final step towards him so I was speaking into his ear, with all the venom and anger in my being, "I will be the one you need to worry about, because I can cause more physical and emotional damage to you than any of those fucking dinosaurs. Stay away from those animals if you fucking value your sorry little life." I spat. I pushed past him with all the strength I had, sending him stumbling backwards.

I stormed back to my car, shaking with anger. I ripped the door open and slammed it shut. I set off, my tires spinning and sending gravel flying in all directions. It was the most aggressive drive of my life.

Without even realising it, I had drove back to the T-Rex exhibit. I took out my phone and dialled a number I had never looked at before.

"Mr Grady. We need to talk. Meet me at my office in the T-Rex enclosure as soon as possible."

"On my way."


	3. Chapter Three - Bigger, Better, Deadlier

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mainly speech, sorry. Basically a filler chapter.

I paced in my office for a good half an hour waiting for Owen to get here. My stomach was churning and I'm sure if I had eaten something today it would now be in a toilet somewhere. To say it was only 9am, my day sure had been eventful.

  
Finally the door swung open and there he was, red faced and panting as if he'd sprinted here.

  
"Did you run here?! The fuck? Why are you so sweaty?" I chuckled.

  
"I just ran from my car, I didn't want to keep you waiting any longer." He collapsed onto the sofa in the office. "Hoskins was not happy with you when you left. You really put the fear of god into him, kudos" he smiled.

  
"I don't give a fuck about that man. Every word I said was true and he has every reason to be scared." I grumbled, glaring at Owen to try and make him understand how pissed the whole situation had made me.

  
"I believe you. You were really terrifying." he said, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees, "so what do you want to do about all this?"

  
"Okay, so... What do you know about the new asset the park has made?" I asked, leaning against the desk the same way I had done with Alyssa a few hours ago.

  
"I have no idea what you are talking about," he said, looking genuinely perplexed, "What new asset?"

  
"I went to the lab yesterday to ask about why there had been no progress with the new T-Rex. Henry Wu ended up telling me that all time and energy had gone into a new dinosaur they had been trying to 'perfect'"

  
"What do you mean _perfect_?" he said, looking more and more confused the more I spoke.

  
"They have made... a genetically modified dinosaur. I don't know what it's made of but I sure as shit know it isn't a new little herbivore for the Gentle Giants exhibit." I sighed.

  
"A... genetically modified- what the fuck?!" he stood up angrily, "Why on Earth would they do that, dinosaurs are exciting enough as they are?!"

  
"That's what I said! Henry told me-" the door to the office swung open.

  
"Hey Emily I thought that was your car outside" said Alyssa walking nonchalantly into the room, "Oh, I didn't realise you had company. Hi Owen, how have you been?" she asked softly with a shy smile, obviously trying to flirt with him. "I haven't seen you since-"

  
"ALYSSA! This is not the time! Leave. Now. Go and check on the rest of the team and make sure they are well-prepared for the next few shows." I snapped, my patience running thin.

  
"But I need to check on the computer-"

  
"Did I FUCKING STUTTER?" I shouted. I knew that was too harsh and sighed, "Listen, I'm sorry. Just use the computer in the other control centre. I will speak to you later. Goodbye." I said sternly.

  
She left silently, looking a bit like a scared field mouse. Owen sat back down and looked at me smiling.

  
"Wow. You really are a force to be reckoned with. Remind me to never get on your bad side" he leant back and crossed his arms behind his head, almost as if he was trying to flex his muscles.

  
"You shouldn't need reminding, you should know by now not to mess with me. I've got a fucking T-Rex for a friend." I smiled and walked towards the metal bars between me and Rex. I whistled and she made her way towards me, she had been standing not far away, I'm guessing because she could hear me shouting. Owen had joined me near the bars, I put my arm across his chest before he got too close. He had never properly been introduced to Rex and I didn't want to spook her. "Easy there, she needs to know your scent first. I'm going to keep holding onto your arm so she knows I trust you." I explained. Rex was crouched with her face pressed against the bars as she usually did. She only growled a little bit but she was probably reacting to the smell of the raptors. "C'mon Rexxy, he's a good one." I stroked her snout and pressed my face to her scaly skin. She finally finished sniffing and walked back to the trees.

  
"She really is beautiful, and you two are so cute together" he smiled, I turned to him and gave him a quizzical look, "I mean the relationship you have is really great, I can't believe the progress you've made. Its really incredible." He patted my shoulder and smiled at me.

  
"Well thanks, that's really nice." I grinned, turning my head back to Rex. "I am going to fight as hard as I can for her. No one will hurt her. Ever. I am going to fight this whole thing. This hybrid dinosaur- I don't know if I can even call it a dinosaur..."

  
"This will be like nothing we've ever seen. If they really want to reinvigorate interest they are going to go all out, bigger and better. And most likely- deadlier."

  
"This could be the downfall of this park if it isn't taken care of properly. Wu and the other bosses don't care about the wellbeing of that dinosaur." I said, turning back to him.

  
"I know." he sighed running his hands through his messy brown hair, "I've been thinking...what if this thing has been made for... I mean, you heard what Hoskins was saying... they could have already made their weapon, and they're trying their best to perfect it ready for the field test."

  
I paused for a moment before speaking, realising that what he said would most likely be true. "Both Henry and Hoskins both said they thought I would be useful to these projects, and I bet they'll want you as well- y'know, to try and train it and stuff" I said pointedly.

  
"Don't worry, these dinosaurs will not be used in any field test so long as you and me keep resisting. And we will." He put his hands on my shoulders and held me at arms length, "Nothing will happen to our Dinosaurs, okay?"

  
"Okay" I sighed, "Thank you, Owen. You don't know how glad I am to finally have this off my chest" I chuckled, rubbing my face and exasperation. It felt weird to be talking to Owen about this, especially since this was the first real conversation we'd had.

  
"Good. Thanks for involving me in this, but I really need to get back to the enclosure." He smiled again, I nodded my head and walked him to the door and opened it for him. He left and I turned back to the cage, watching the trees rustle as Rex walked around.

  
"We'll get through this Rex" I sighed before I turned my attention to the PC and checked the schedule for the rest of the day. However a voice from the doorway made me jump.

  
"Hey." Suddenly Owen was back at the door, leaning against the doorframe, "We should go out sometime, I'd love to take you to dinner" he smirked.

  
"Oh yeah sure, for more consulting right?" I smiled, rolling my eyes. I knew of the reputation Owen had on the island, and I had no intention of wasting my time on someone like that, and I definitely had zero intention on spending time on any other person other than myself (that's why I had a fucking T-Rex for a bestfriend).

  
"No seriously, lets get drinks sometimes- call me." He said with a wink before leaving.

  
"Yeah sure - I'll get right on that" I murmured to myself sarcastically.


	4. Chapter Four - She breaks noses not just hearts.

A week or so had passed since me and Owen spoke about the new dinosaur. Alyssa had given me the silent treatment for a few hours but quickly realised that I was her boss and ignoring me was a stupid idea considering she was still in the probation period of the job.

  
"Soo...." Alyssa started, as we sat in the T-Rex office at 6pm checking over tomorrows schedule and replying to a few emails, "can I ask what is happening between you and Owen?"

  
"Me and Owen? Nothing is happening between us" I laughed, honestly entertained by the idea of Owen and myself. Not gonna lie though- we would be a hot couple.

  
"Well _something_ must be going on between you two, why else would you be so annoyed when I came into the office that day?" she asked curiously, "Did he sleep with you and never call you again too?"

  
"What?!" I laughed, "Alyssa I understand that I am your friend, but this is really not a conversation your _boss_ would want to hear."

  
"I'm sorry he just aggravates me, I want to make sure you don't make the same mistake that I did." she sighed, sitting down on the couch.

  
"I can promise you bud, you wont ever have to worry about me and Owen Grady." I replied, still chuckling. She dropped the subject and we sat in silence for a few minutes while I replied to some e-mails.

  
"Soo..." she started again, standing up and slowly making her way towards me. If I didn't know any better I would've thought she was going to put the moves on me herself. "Is there anybody who you've been seeing? You've been here for months now, and well... the staff members.... they talk."

  
"Talk about what exactly?" I said, raising an eyebrow questionably.

  
"Well one person brought up the fact that you were _really_ friendly with a tourist one day and they heard some of the conversation and realised you two had been together in the past..."

  
"Okaaay..."

  
"And then another person remembered seeing you with another man and the same thing happened, they realised you had been _together_ before. So we thought you had just dated _a lot_ of people but then I remember you saying how you haven't dated since you were a teenager, soo...."

  
"Soooo.... spit it out Alyssa." I said, spinning in my chair to fully face her and crossing my arms across my chest.

  
"Well now everyone thinks you're some kind of man-eater and all the staff are desperate to try and get themselves on the list!" she explained quickly.

  
"Oh. That wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, I thought I was about to be slut-shamed. Oh wait is that why Jeremy from the maintenance team wouldn't leave the control room yesterday when you spilt water all over my boobs?" I laughed. (It was an accident, she was gesturing a bit too wildly and forgot that the lid wasn't on her water bottle).

  
"Yes! He was mesmerised, I had to practically push him out the door. As your assistant people keep coming to me trying to get to know your schedule."

  
"Well thank you, but the next time it comes up you can tell everyone to keep their noses out of my sex life." I said sternly.

  
"Aye aye captain" she said, mock saluting to me because she knew it would make me smile, "I'll go see to the final feed of the night."

  
Alyssa left and I continued to reply to my emails. So what if I had slept around a bit on this island? You know how boring the nights are when the only people to talk to were my colleagues? I was _always_ clear about my intentions with my partners and always made sure we parted on good terms to avoid those awkward meetings. I never wanted to bump into someone while doing a show and have to have the awkward conversation of _'Oh hey, we used to fuck every night when I got bored and couldn't sleep at 3am. And now you're asking to hear dinosaur facts. Cool.'_

  
6:30 rolled around and I decided to say goodnight to Rexy before I left. I went through the usual routine of whistling and pressing my face against her snout between the bars. After she returned to the trees I made sure I locked up the office and sent a text to Alyssa to tell her I was done here for the night. I made my way towards the Park Main Street, I planned to just go straight to towards the Mosasaurus exhibit to see if I could catch a glimpse of her at the final show of the night. The Mosasaurus exhibit was the last show of the entire night before everything closed and all that was left open were the restaurants and bars. Everything was going fine until I walked past Margaritaland and heard the familiar "Hey" from a certain French man.

  
I stopped and slowly turned on my heel to see not only Barry but Owen Grady and two other men from the raptor enclosure sitting at one of the outdoor tables. I put on my best smile and made my way over to the table, Barry was already standing and hugging me before I had even reached the group.

  
"How are you doing Emily?" He smiled, resting his arm around my shoulders, this was something he never did and I guessed it was because he had been drinking and had got into one of those over-friendly moods. 

  
"Ah y'know, not too bad. Busy day taming dinosaurs." I nervously laughed, very conscious of the fact that all four men were looking at me each with equally intense gazes.

  
"Hey I've never been introduced to ol' Rexy" slurred one of the unknown men, swirling the whiskey in his glass, "How about you show my your Rex and you can meet _my Raptors_ " he winked, very openly staring at my boobs. The others sighed and the second man sighed and muttered something under his breath that sounded like _'maybe lay off the whiskey now, Max'_.

  
" _Your raptors_ huh?" I smirked, "What is it you actually do?" I raised an eyebrow and leaned forward to rest against Barry's empty chair in front of me.

  
"Well... ugh, I help .... ugh, ahem" he stumbled, clearing his throat, unable to get the words out.

  
"He cleans up the Raptors shit!" laughed Barry, sparking a chorus of laughter from the other men. Max was visibly annoyed and smacked the arm of the man next to him and told him to shut up.

  
After the laughter died down I took my hands off the chair and pulled it out for Barry to sit back down. "Well, as lovely as that invitation seems and as much as I am _dying_ to have sex with someone who stinks of Raptor crap, I think I better be going." Then Barry and the second man stifled laughter as Max turned beet red, Owen reached out and patted him on the back while chuckling to himself. "It was nice seeing you Barry, enjoy the rest of your night lads." I smiled and removed myself from the group, continuing towards the Mosasaurus tank.

  
I walked quietly for a few minutes until I heard heavy footsteps bounding up behind me, I turned around to see Owen Grady running towards me. "Hey, wait up" he shouted.

  
"Can I help?" I said, not stopping to wait for him and never faltering my pace.

  
"You never called me after that day in your office," he breathed, falling in step with me, "I thought we were going to get drinks?"

  
"Well, you _asked_ me to call you, I never agreed to anything, Mr Grady." I knew how much it annoyed him when people called him by his last name; I couldn't resist.

  
"You don't want to at least try something new? C'mon, I never see you out here socialising, you're always in your bungalow" he laughed, nudging his shoulder into mine.

  
"Try something new? You say that like going out with you it the same as going to a new restaurant" I chuckled, "And trust me, I know that many, _many_ people have already eaten there and the reviews are not great." I smirked at him, looking for his reaction out the corner of my eye.

  
"Bad reviews? Never! You're telling me you've heard from people who have had bad meals?" he smirked cockily, knowing full well that no girl has ever complained about his performance in the bedroom.

  
I paused for a moment, "It's not so much the food, it's the customer service. You have poor customer service and it makes your customers feel unwelcome at the establishment."

  
"Okay this is getting confusing" he laughed, coming to a stop and taking me by my arm.

  
"Let me explain then, you've got a reputation for sleeping with girls and then dropping all contact and making them feel like shit afterwards."

  
"Well it's not as if your reputation is much better" he said huskily without missing a beat. He leant into my ear, "I hear you're quite popular with the men on this island. In fact Barry, Tyler and Max were filling me in just before you showed up. Sounded like a good time if you ask me."

  
"See, that's the difference between you and me... The people I have sex with are fully aware that I am not looking for a relationship, and I can still talk to them afterwards as friends. But you... well, just an _hour_ ago my assistant warned me about getting too close to you."

  
"What can I say, I'm a romantic" he smiled cockily, now rubbing circles into my forearm.

  
"Oh _please_ ," I said, pulling my arm out of his grasp, "you charm your way into every girls pants and then never call them again. That's not romance!" I laughed, truly exasperated at his statement.

  
"Clearly not _every_ girl's pants. There's one girl who still evades me...." he said slowly, looking down and then looking back up at me from beneath his eyelashes.

  
"Well..." I whispered, taking a step towards him and pressing my chest against his, standing on my tiptoes to reach his ear. "You're just gonna have to keep trying, Raptor Boy..." I said slowly, brushing my lips against his earlobe.

  
I took a step back and turned on my heel, not looking him in his eyes. I knew me and Owen Grady would never be a possibility, but I liked to tease. While I can admit that he is a beautiful specimen, I refuse to be just another one of his conquests. But it was nice to mess him around, I felt like I was doing it on behalf of the all the girls he's ever messed around.

  
I made it just in time for the Mosasaurus feeding. Mo leapt from the water and devoured the shark that was hanging from a wire above her. When I first started working here one of the first people I met was a girl name Lucy, not much younger than me. We stayed in rooms next to each other when I was living in the hotel. She had been in a bungalow for a while but had decided to move in with her boyfriend, a man she had met and immediately fell in love with (he lived on the mainland and happily welcomed her and got her accustomed to the people and the streets). Her and I had always shared the same views when it came to most things, she really helped me to get settled at the Park, I tried to visit her and watch her shows whenever I had the extra time. 

  
She was just finishing off the Mosasaurus show and was taking questions from the crowd. I made my way to stand near the front railing behind some security guards, they were used to me sneaking in at this point and rarely ever asked to see a badge these days. Finally the show ended and the stands emptied, throngs of people flocking to the bars and restaurants, I waited for Lucy to leave her platform, she walked up to me and gave me hug. We took the familiar route down to the office/staffroom, there was a staircase that led downstairs to the underwater viewing section which led to the corridor that ran round the entire tank. Several rooms stored diving equipment and non-lethal weaponry, some held computers, and such things. We took the door which led to the staff room and I took a seat while Lucy got changed out of her 'presenter' outfit.

  
"So how have you been Em?" she asked, opening a locker with her name on it and pulling out some clothes from it.

  
"Oh you have no idea, it's been a stressful few days" I sighed, slouching into the chair.

  
"Oh I think I have a pretty good idea," she turned to me and smirked, "I ran into your assistant..."

  
"Oh god."

  
"So... you and Owen Grady" she smirked again, wiggling her eyebrows, "I've got to admit Em, I thought it was about time. Between the two of you probably fucked enough people to fill the stands out there"

  
"No its not like that, I swear. Alyssa got it wrong, me and Owen will never work, trust me" I laughed. "We were just having a serious conversation and she took it to mean we were having a lovers spat"

  
"Oh... well, I'm not gonna lie I'm a bit disappointed. I thought you two were perfect for each other" she teased, carefully hanging her blazer and midi skirt in the locker ready for tomorrow.

  
"Oh come off it, don't give me that shit! I can't say he's not trying his hardest though" We both laughed, she walked over to the fridge in the corner, grabbing some bottles of water for the both of us.

  
"So what kind of 'serious talk' were you having?" she asked curiously, passing the water to me and taking a seat next to me.

  
"I can't say Luce, sorry. Its real confidential stuff, I'm not even meant to know about it!" I sighed again. Thankfully she didn't push the issue, that's one thing I loved about her; she never forced anything out of me even though I had access to a lot more information than she did. "There is something I wanted to ask you though..."

  
"Yeah sure, what is it?" she replied kindly.

  
"Do you think I sleep around too much?" I blurted out.

  
"No of course not" replied simply, not even taking a minute to think about it.

  
"Really? Alyssa was telling me how everyone thinks I'm some kind of man-eater and apparently people are starting to think I'm 'easy' or something"

  
"Don't be silly. You're a beautiful, confident woman having fun and enjoying her life."

  
"You're sure?"

  
"Absolutely!" she smiled, "You see how the men idolise Grady for sleeping around, and all the girls want to be with him. Why should it be any different with you, just because you've got a vag instead of a dick?"

  
I laughed and immediately felt relieved and comforted by my friend, "God I love you," I smiled and pulled her into a hug, "thanks Luce."

  
"You're welcome sweetie"

  
"Are you doing anything tonight?" I asked, looking at the time- 7:10pm, "Girls night?"

  
"Sorry I can't, it's me and Abel's anniversary, he's cooking me a romantic meal."

  
"Oh okay no problem, have fun" I smiled taking a sip from my water, "wait... I thought you two got together in March?"

  
"It's a _different_ kind of anniversary sweetie" she smirked, wiggling her eyebrows for like the hundredth time.

  
"Oooo LUCY'S GON' GET LAID TONIGHT" I shouted, cupping my hands around my mouth like some kind of frat boy.

  
"SHHHH quiet down! People might hear you" she laughed, clutching her stomach as she did.

  
"Sorry, I'm just excited for you" I said, standing up and placing a friendly kiss to her hair, "enjoy your night Luce, call me tomorrow sometime yeah?"

  
"Yeah of course, are you going?" she asked.

  
"Yeah I'm going to head home I think" I explained, "It's been a long day." She nodded and we exchanged goodbyes.

  
I thought about trying to run past Margaritaland to avoid Owen and the horny-boys if they were still there. However it seemed I was too slow to make a decision as Tyler, the more sober one of the group, had already spotted me and was making his way towards me. It was clear he had drank a lot more since I left and was stumbling all over the pavement trying to make it to me. Honestly, he was kind of cute and I probably would've toyed with the idea of taking him home with me, but I make it a rule not to sleep with men who can't hold their alcohol.

  
"Hey Emily! Just can't stay away from us right?" he smiled, taking a long gulp of his drink before letting out a loud burp. Gross.

  
"Wow. Seems like you guys are having fun." I grimaced. I spotted drunkard number two, Max, walking towards me.

  
"Oi Tyler I called dibs" he shouted, sliding his hand around my shoulders and pushing his friend away.

  
"Excuse me?! Called dibs on what exactly?" I asked angrily, shoving his arm off my shoulders and taking a step away from both of them.

  
"Dibs on who got to sleep with you" Max replied nonchalantly, sipping from his glass.

  
"And what the fuck makes you think I would want to sleep with either of you?!" I half-shouted.

  
"Hey fellas, what's going on here?" asked Owen, who seemed to just appear out of nowhere. Truthfully I was happy to see someone who wasn't trashed out their mind. However neither Tyler or Max paid attention to him being there.

  
"Well you're like the island slut right? You'll fuck anyone or so I've heard."

  
"HEY!" yelled Owen, "Who do you think you're talking-"

  
**Smack**.

  
My fist collided with Max's nose and he stumbled back before dropping to the ground. His glass dropped to the pavement with a smash and his hand went to hold his nose- which was now streaming with blood. Tyler and Owen stood there as if they were lost for words. I was thankful for the loud noise being emitted from the fountain next to us, I hoped it had concealed all the noise we were making.

  
I turned my attention to Tyler. "Now... Do you have anything to add to what you friend just said? Want to call me a whore or a slut as well?" I asked calmly.

  
"No. No of course not. I'm sorry for bothering you. Sor- sorry." he stuttered. He swiftly turned his back on us and rushed back to the table they had previously been sat at.

  
"And Max..." I said slowly, crouching so I was eye level with him on the ground, "Is there anything you would like to say to me?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

  
"I'm sorry" he mumbled, it was barely audible from behind his hand and above the sounds of the fountain.

  
"What was that?" I said sternly, giving him my best glare.

  
He slowly removed his hand from his nose with a wince, "I'm sorry."

  
"Alright, thank you." I stood back up and crossed my arms across my chest, still staring down at him.

  
I had forgot Owen was there, he had been stood in stunned silence this whole time. He slowly helped Max up and pushed him in the direction of the hotel, "Go on, get out of here Max! Before you cause yourself more injury." Max looked at him blankly, causing Owen to take a step towards in his direction and glare at even harder at him than I did. This sure motivated him, he stumbled back again and took off jogging towards the hotel.

  
I didn't say anything to Owen, I simply sat on the wall that surrounded the fountain, I looked towards my shoes. Why had every encounter with a man this past week been an aggressive one? It was either Wu, or Hoskins or drunken men. I always seemed to be on edge and ready to fight whenever an altercation came up. Maybe I had been spending too much time with Carnivorous animals and that aggression had somehow passed onto me?

  
Owen sat down next to me after he had finished gawping at me in shock. "Are you okay?" he asked softly, looking at me with nothing but concern, it was completely different to what I was used to from him.

  
"Yeah, fine I guess. I just got a bit angry" I sighed, running my fingers through my hair.

  
"I could tell, I wasn't expecting that. I didn't realise you were so...."

  
"Sooo... aggressive?" I chuckled.

  
"Well yeah, but you had every right to be pissed. It was like when Hoskins was riling you up last week, I just never thought I'd see you _punch_ a guy. It- it  was... awesome!" he exclaimed, looking at me with the cheesiest grin I had ever seen on his face.

  
"Are you kidding me?" I laughed.

  
"I'm serious, that was badass! I was ready to jump in and punch him myself but I didn't need to!"

  
"No you didn't, I can fend for myself" I said, looking up at him. The men on this island had a tendency to think women couldn't handle themselves and had no business working in such a dangerous place. Burly and muscly men like Mr Grady always seemed like the type who would follow the same misogynistic thoughts.

  
"I was fully aware you could fend for yourself, I had no doubt about that after watching you train that T-Rex, plus the way you told off Hoskins really cemented that _'don't mess with Emily she'll rip your fucking head off_ ' vibe in my brain."

  
But then again... he didn't seem too bad, I thought. I always appreciated a man that could admit women were just as capable of being badasses. Maybe I had judged him too quickly, he seemed like a nice lad - y'know, when he wasn't trying to climb into my pants.

  
"Well thank you, Owen." I said standing up from the wall and taking my keys from my pocket, "I think I'll be heading home now, I'm sorry if I dampened your evening." I turned to see Tyler sat at the table alone while Barry chatted up a woman at the bar.

  
"Of course not, you livened it up actually" he laughed, also standing up. "To be honest with you, I had gotten bored of listening to them talk about how hot you were". There was that signature smirk again, and the mischievous sparkle in his eyes had returned.

  
A little flirting didn't hurt anybody right? "Oh yeah suuure, I bet you loved it."

  
"Nope it got boring I swear" he said crossing his arms, another Owen Grady move which meant _'look at my big strong arms'_.

  
"I'm sure you had already thought about every single way in which I'm great, so I understand how you might've been sick of hearing about the same old things" I smirked, raising an eyebrow.

  
"Well at least now I have one more thing to add to my 'Emily is Great' list - nose-breaker will be a lovely addition to it"

  
I laughed and brought my hand up to my face in a sort of face palm, "God you're an idiot" I chuckled.

  
"Ah you love it though" he winked, nudging his shoulder against mine, something he had a habit of doing.

  
"Yeah whatever you say, Raptor Boy. I'm going home." I sighed, throwing my keys up and trying to catch them to make myself look cool, however when I went to catch them Owen had already swiped them from the air and was now dangling them high above my head. "Hey c'mon that's not fair, I'm only 5'4." I laughed, struggling to get onto my tippy toes.

  
"Well what are you going to do about it, _shorty_?" he smirked, bringing his face down to mine so I could really see the smug look on his face.

  
"You're an asshole, c'mon I want  to get home" I laughed, using his shoulders as support while I jumped up to try and reach my keys.

  
"Hmm you can have them back if you give me a kiss." he smiled, puckering his lips in an exaggerated fashion and making a slurping noise.

  
"Ugh gross, that's the least appetising kiss I've ever seen" I laughed, my stomach now beginning to ache from the laughter.

  
"Hey, words hurt y'know" he gasped, clutching his chest with his hand in shock. "Fine, how about a date then?" he asked in a more serious tone, taking my hand that was holding his shoulder and enclosing it in his own. This was the second time I had been stood uncomfortably close to Owen Grady, our chests touching and our breath fanning each others faces.

  
"How about..." I said slowly, moving my free hand up to his bicep, "I give you a ride home..." I slid my hand further so it was grasping his forearm, "and we talk about the _prospect_ of a date on the way there..." My hand reached his wrist and I slowly pulled his arm down and took the keys from his hand.

  
He seemed to ponder this proposition for a while until he finally said, "Okay fine. I'm sure that's the best offer I'll get tonight" he smirked.

  
"You would be right in that, Mr Grady" I smiled.

  
" _Owen_." he corrected, moving his face momentarily closer to mine again and widening his eyes slightly. "Let me just say goodbye to Barry first though."

  
We walked over to the bar and saw Barry at the bar kissing the woman from earlier, his hands grabbing at her ass and her arms clamped tightly around his neck.

  
"Look at how happy the both look Emily. Doesn't it make you want to kiss someone as well?" he laughed, puckering his lips again and making the same slurping noise from earlier.

  
"God no!" I laughed, putting my hand over his mouth and pushing his face away softly, "C'mon lets just go- I'm sure Barry won't miss you."

 


	5. Chapter Five - Old Flames and New Games

 

The walk to my car was silent, we listened to the sound of the music from the bar until it could not longer be heard. It was just passing 6am so the sun was still quite bright, it cast a lovely amber glow across the park. When we reached my car that was parked behind the T-Rex paddock I jumped in and started the engine. Immediately Elvis started blaring from the speakers, I quickly turned it down so it wasn't as deafening.

  
"Sorry, I was listening to my wedding music playlist earlier" I explained, putting my seatbelt on an putting the car in first gear.

  
Owen looked at me puzzled, "Your what playlist?!" he said, clearly shocked.

  
"Hear me out" I smiled, pulling away and starting the drive to the lake. "The music you always hear at weddings is the best music, its all happy snappy songs from the 60's and 70's. Its just easier to look for playlists for wedding disco's than it is to collect all my favourite songs."

  
"Ah that's true, I always bust a move or two at weddings, I'm not going to lie" he smiled, "so you like 60's and 70's genre music?"

  
"Well I'll listen to anything, but at stressful times like these I prefer to listen to something I know I can sing along to and it will boost my mood. This is also the music I listen to while I'm home alone getting drunk and dancing around in my underwear" I smirked, purely just trying to get a reaction from him. I don't know why but I was in a strangely good mood and was happy to share this information with this man I hardly knew. I think I was maybe I was still on the nose-breaking high from earlier.

  
"Hellooo, I think I just found our first date! Lets get drunk and dance around in our underwear!" he grinned.

  
"Don't be absurd! Those are private moments and I wont be sharing them any time soon pal." I smiled, looking over to see a smirk playing on his face. "Plus, I never agreed to a date, I said we could _talk_ about the _prospect_ of a date, don't get carried away, Mr Grady."

  
"Oh please!" he said, turning in his seat so he faced me properly, "You are sooo close to agreeing to go out with me, you're divulging all these secrets, whispering flirty things in my ear and constantly feeling up my muscles- don't even try to deny it." he made a point of flexing the arm closest to me so I reached over and slapped it away.

  
"I'm the island slut Grady, of course I'm going to be flirty" I smirked, only half joking.

  
"Don't be ridiculous, I'm the Island slut."

  
I wasn't expecting that reply and so I broke out into laughter- it wasn't the first time that had happened this evening, and as hard I tried to remain neutral towards Owen Grady I had to admit that he was one funny fucker at times. "We can share the title I guess, we'll have to compare numbers the next time we have the chance."

  
Owen laughed and turned his attention back to the road- we would be approaching his house soon. "Are you sure you don't like the sound of a casual dancing date? I could show you the naked dancing duet of my people, I'll even let you be on top- oops I mean you can lead." He winked, and continued to have that same smirk, at this point I was half concerned it was permanently glued there.

  
I stopped the car and turned off the engine. I turned to face him fully, "You're an idiot Grady, and we're here now..."

  
"It was worth a try, right?" he smiled, unbuckling his seatbelt.

  
"Right." I agreed- I wasn't entirely sure why I did as his ego _definitely_ didn't need feeding any more.

  
"How about a kiss goodnight?" he said, moving closer to me and wiggling his eyebrows.

  
I put my hand behind his neck and pulled him into me so I could whisper in his ear "No fucking way, Raptor boy". I made sure to graze his ear with my lips again and ensured he got a good view down my top while I had him in that position. Maybe I was a bit too flirty for my own good- I don't know why I was starting to play these games.

  
"Fine" he sighed, looking me in the eye, my hand still behind his neck. I knew I was being harsh but I also knew he liked the challenge. "Goodnight then, Emily. Sleep well" he smiled opening his door.

  
"Thanks, you too" I said, before turning the key in the ignition and putting the car in first. I looked up to see why I hadn't heard the door close yet and that was when Owen took the opportunity to lean across and kiss me on the cheek.  
He pulled away slowly, grazing my jaw with his stubble until his face was in front of mine, our noses were touching and we were breathing in each others air. He stared at my lips for what seemed like an eternity. I stared back at him, my eyes wide. I imagine this is what the goats in Rex's pen feel like when she goes in for the kill.

  
Finally he pulled away- obviously pleased with having snuck a kiss - even if it was only on the cheek. He was never going to kiss me on the lips, I wouldn't let him, he just wanted to plant the image of what it would be like in my mind so that was all I would think about driving home. I know this because it's the same move I pull on first dates when I want to leave a lasting impression.

  
The door of the car slammed shut and Owen sauntered towards his bungalow and I snapped out of my reverie. I rolled down my window and shouted out "Fuck you Grady, Fuck you!" However I couldn't help but laugh at how dazed I had been. I swore at myself.

  
"You wish sweetie" he shouted back, spreading his arms out in a ' _come and get it'_ sort of way before blowing a kiss to me because he knew it would piss me off.  
I don't know what had happened but in the space of a couple of hours I had gone from steadfastly refusing to think about Owen in a romantic way, to being an inch from his stupid face fighting every impulse in my body to stop myself from leaning forward and kissing the fuck out of him. It had been a strange day to say the least...

 

*****

  
A few days had passed and I had done everything in my power to avoid Owen. What happened the other night was unacceptable and I refused to let anything else happen. I spoke to Lucy about the encounter, and she thought that I was just getting bored and kept trying to tease him for some kind of fun. Which was sort of true, I suppose. The last few weeks had been hectic as the Park geared up ready for the Summer, and I was finding it hard to make time for a social life. I hardly ever went out and stayed home half the time- planning schedules and writing my reports until the early hours of the morning. Because of this I hadn't met anyone new in a while, (aka. I hadn't slept with anyone new in a while). Lucy concluded that this situation with Owen was purely due to my lack of sexual fulfillment, and I simply just needed to get laid. We both agreed that Owen would NOT be the one doing the laying.

  
Instead I turned towards an old flame; Michael - the lead trainer of the apotysaurus', and a pretty good lay if I remember correctly. It was a Thursday afternoon and so I decided to go visit him in my lunch break. However he was nowhere to be found, I asked one of the staff members overseeing the exhibit and he told me he was in the office- so off I went to find him.

  
I knocked on the door to the office and slowly opened it, peaking my head through the gap. He had been staring intently at a laptop until he spun round in his chair and saw me. His face broke out into a smile and he stood up.

  
"Emily! Hi, how are you?" he asked, opening his arms to hug me (I usually only allowed Barry to hug me, but since I had already decided I would be having sex with him tonight, I let the gesture slide)

  
"Not too bad thanks, how have you been?" I smiled kindly, closing the office door and making my way towards a small sofa in the room.

  
"Same old, same old." he sighed, " _Fuck_ , I wasn't expecting to see you today! I haven't seen you since..." his sentence dwindled off and his face turned red at the memory of our last encounter. I invited him over for dinner and we ended up having sex on the kitchen counter amongst containers of Chinese food. He accidently put his hand into a tub of sweet and sour sauce as he braced himself against the counter I was sat on. He ran his hands across my body still and I sucked the sweet sauce from his fingers. I was sticky in all crevices for a few days after that.

  
"Yeah... I remember." I smirked, "That was a good night. Do you fancy coming round again soon? I've kind of missed your company." Truthfully Michael was one of the funniest people I had come across on this island, he constantly had people in tears because of his over the top nature. We were both pretty aggressive, he was constantly shouting at his colleagues and got into arguments over the tiniest things, 'Oh my fucking god Gavin! YOU IDIOT! You let all the chickens loose again? MORON!'. He was very popular amongst the female staff for his boyish charm and outlandish behaviour.

  
"Will there be Chinese food again?" he smirked, walking towards me and sitting next to me on the sofa.

  
"It can be arranged, but to be honest all I want is you." I said sultrily, leaning towards him so I could feel his breath on my face. It was a cheesy line and I tried to avoid those but I felt like mixing things up for a change.

  
"Deal." he said lowly, leaning forward and moving his lips to my ear, "How about tonight?" He playfully nipped my earlobe.

  
"8pm, I'll be waiting for you." I said, standing up from my position. I stood between his legs as he sat on the sofa, I leaned down slightly and slid my hands into the curls at his neck. I leant down further and pressed a kiss to his lips, waiting until his hands inevitably began to move to my ass, before retracting and walking out the room. What was the point of getting things heated now? There would be plenty of time for that tonight.

  
Around 3pm I had finished up a check up on a triceratops and was making my way towards the T-Rex building to make sure things had run smoothly since I had been out all afternoon. Alyssa could handle the basic running of the paddock, i.e. feeding, cleaning and making sure shows ran smoothly. But I always liked to check up on her to make sure she wasn't too overwhelmed. While she was very knowledgeable about the dinosaurs and she was a great help to me, she was lacking a lot in the managerial department.

  
I was just walking into the staff entrance when my phone rang, I checked the caller ID and saw _'Owen Grady'_ brightly flashing on my screen. 'Oh this should be fun' I thought, rolling my eyes. I clicked answer and held the phone to my ear. "Hello?"

  
"Emily, Hi. I need your help with something. Claire Dearing is driving me to inspect the enclosure of a new asset." He said.

  
"What? She's taking you there? Has she told you what it is yet?!" I gasped, questions running through my mind. I could hear the engine in the background and realised Claire must have been listening.

  
"Yeah that's right," he replied, ignoring my questions, trying to pretend that I was surprised, "a new dinosaur has been made. Claire wants me and you to inspect the paddock - Mr Masrani's orders. You're still with Rex right?"

  
"Yeah I'm here, but ughhh, why us?" I groaned, "Where is this paddock anyway?"

  
"I'm not sure yet, we're coming to pick you up and she's taking us there. I'm only calling to give you a heads up, don't start a training session or go home is what I'm saying. We'll be there in 10 minutes"

  
"Okay fine. See you in a bit." I said, hanging up the phone.

  
25 minutes and one, realllly fucking boring car ride later, we were at the new paddock. The place still looked like a construction site, scaffolding was surrounding the entire paddock.

  
"I thought this thing was getting ready to be shown to the public? Why isn't her enclosure finished yet?" I asked Claire as she led us towards a set of stairs which, I assumed, went to the control room.

  
"We planned to open in May, but Asset Containment insisted we build the walls up higher. She's a lot bigger than we expected." she replied, walking carefully in her inappropriate heels.

  
"I'm sure she really appreciates the constant drilling and noise, what a great idea!" I said with a sarcastic smile, I saw Owen smirk out the corner of my eye as we entered the room. The paddock supervisor was sat at his desk, eating a sandwich- he hardly even looked up to greet us when we entered, but then again, Claire was far from being an approachable person.

  
Owen and I walked up to the glass panes separating us from the dinosaur, I saw a tree shimmy slightly in the distance.

  
"What happened here?" questioned Owen, pointing to a massive crack in the window.

  
"Holy shit! Did she try to break it?" I gasped. Claire nodded her head silently, almost looking embarrassed. "She seems feisty, what's her name?"

  
"We named her the Indominus Rex" she said, flattening a stray hair that had somehow managed to escape from her straight bob. Claire's hair almost reminded me of the hair that female Lego characters had, just because of how perfect it was.

  
"The _Indominus_ Rex" laughed Owen, finding it amusing for some reason.

  
"We needed something _scary_ and easy to pronounce. You should hear a four-year-old try to say "Archaeornithomimus"" she explained.

  
"You should hear _you_ try to say it" I muttered with a smile, earning a glare from Claire. A Claire Glare.  "But what's her actual name, like her nickname?"

  
"She doesn't have one" Claire said, frowning as if it was the most stupid question in the world.

  
I paused for a second... "You haven't shown that dinosaur a single ounce of love of attention have you? You just sit up here and stare at her all day like some kind of science experiment?"

  
"Fine! We can call her Rex or something!" sighed Claire, throwing her arms up in exasperation, "What is your point Miss Wilson?"

  
"Oh no you won't! There is only one Rex in this park and she's mine" I snapped and crossed my arms, Owen let out a little chuckle, "And my point  _Miss Dearing_ is that the animal in there has had no contact with any human being, all her life she's been trapped in this enclosure, she's formed no relationships at all!"

  
She ignored my statement and was clearly growing impatient, I'm sure mine and Owen's teasing was starting to bug her. In our defense, it was sort of an unspoken rule for all park workers to make fun of people from Head Office - since none of them had a clue what it was like to actually look after a dinosaur.

  
"Where is she?" asked Owen, "Is there a basement to this thing?"

  
"No, we were just here. Can we drop her deer please?" she asked, earning a sigh from the man who was clearly enjoying his lunch.

  
"You feed it with that?!" asked Owen, pointing toward the deer carcass now being lowered into the cage.

  
"Oh sorry Claire, she _has_ formed an attachment, I'm so glad you decided to make a crane her lead trainer" I spat, moving closer towards the window to get a better look at the crane.

  
"At least she knows that means food" Owen said with a frown, the both of us beginning to understand just how much this animal had been neglected.

  
I rolled my eyes and caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye. Claw marks covered the lower panel of the wall next to the control room, "Woah! When did these claw marks happen?" I gasped, turning and pointing them out to the rest of the room.

  
Owen rushed to my side and inspected the marks himself.

  
"You don't think... that she got out, do you?" Claire asked, her voice trembling slightly.

  
"Run a thermal scan right now!" I shouted, my stomach starting to churn slightly.

  
Claire rushed over to one of the monitors and began tapping away furiously, Owen and I shared a scared look. It was an emotion I had never seen on his face before, and I can't say I enjoyed it.

  
Our heads snapped to the monitors displaying the security feed, each of them began to flash red.

  
**'NO HEAT SIGNTURES DETECTED'.**


	6. Chapter Six - A well-deserved raise

**'NO HEAT SIGNATURES DETECTED'**

  
"That's impossible" breathed the man at the desk, "These doors haven't been opened for weeks!" He began to tap away at the controls in a panic.

  
I thought back to when we first entered the control room, "It can't be true, I saw the trees rustling when we first came in" I said quickly, standing closer to the window and squinting into the trees in the distance.

  
"She has a tracking implant in her back, I can track it from the control room!" said Claire, making her way towards the door quickly. Her calm demeanor had disappeared and the words sort of just tumbled from her mouth with no confidence.

  
"Wait can't you just call someone to check now?" asked Owen, clearly just as panicked but trying to keep everyone calm.

  
I let out a shaky breath and swallowed thickly. "Yeah... there's no need to go rushing around. 50ft long dinosaurs don't just hop a fence! There are loads of people out there working on that wall, you think she just escaped without any of them noticing?" I'm not sure where the words came from, I just sort of started sentences and hoped I was able to find some coherence from somewhere. But by the end of it I had seemed to calm everyone in the room, Owen nodded in agreement and they all seemed to realise how implausible it all seemed.

  
"You're right, I can call Lowery!" said Claire, straightening her shoulders with a new found sense of reason. She pulled out her phone and began dialling.

  
"Everything is fine right?" whispered Owen, turning his back to Claire, "You're right about this?" It wasn't a statement, he was looking for reassurance and I had to be the strong and confident voice of reason to calm him.

  
"Of course, everything is going to be fine." I reached out and placed my hand on his arm, giving it a squeeze. I had never seen Owen look so vulnerable, it was like I was comforting a small child.

  
"Lowery! Get me coordinates on the Indominus!" she snapped, turning to face the glass, peering into the trees as I had done earlier. We all looked at her intensely, all secretly expecting bad news.

  
A moment passed before Claire gave a sigh of relief, "She's in the cage! Thank god! No Lowery everything is fine- yes I - no she - STOP TALKING!" she snapped gesturing her hands wildly, "Everything is fine, thank you." She hung up the phone with a smile.

  
"So..." said Owen, clapping his hands together, "she's in the cage! Great"

  
"Well..." came a quiet voice from the corner of the room. 'Dude don't you dare fucking say it' I thought, "Her _tracker_ is in the cage" he whispered.

  
 Fuck you guy, _fuck you._

  
Claire gasped and turned to Owen with another panicked look on her face, and in turn Owen looked at me with the same shock. And I looked back at everyone with a blank expression. All eyes were on me to make a decision and I had no idea what to say. This was crazy.

  
"There is _no way_... a 50ft dinosaur ... climbed a cement wall, with _no one_ seeing her" I spoke slowly, looking down at my feet. I was struggling to form the sentences in my head. This was madness and the rational side of me _knew_ that. But there was a small corner of my mind that would not stop screaming in terror, no matter how much I willed it not to.

  
"You!" I pointed at the man at the desk, "bring up the security footage from the morning, look through the footage on the camera closest to the wall with the scratches, keep looking until you see some movement."

  
He nodded furiously and began tapping away on the PC, Owen rushed to stand next to him and helped watch.

  
"Claire!" I snapped, she had just been stood ringing her hands together, and the managerial side of my brain was kicking in and would not allow slacking behaviour. I knew what to do, the commands flew from my mouth, I was purely running on gut-instinct, but I think I sounded confident.

  
"Yes?"

  
"Mr Masrani was here this morning right? I saw his chopper flying over the park earlier" I questioned. She gave me a sharp nod, her red hair jumping up and down.

  
"Get him on the phone, tell him to have a chat with his people in the lab. That is no dinosaur in there! Tell him she marked up that wall as bait, she's smarter than anyone ever realised." She took off towards the door without saying a word, "Oh Claire, check to make sure everyone is still alive out there on your way past."

  
"That is _not_ funny, Miss Wilson!" she snapped, slamming the door behind her.

  
I knew it wasn't funny.

  
None of this was funny in the slightest! But I was struggling with a lot of information right now and humour was my defense mechanism. It was stressful times like this when I also used sex as a coping mechanism, so Claire should be thankful that she got a distasteful joke rather than a smack on the ass and a cheesy pick-up line.

  
"You found anything yet?" I asked, letting out a breath I didn't know I was holding. The two men shook their heads. "When was the last time you saw her?"

  
"She never came to the crane this morning for her feed" the man spoke, I finally looked at his badge and saw his name was Nick. "But she had been there all night, I checked the data analysis first thing!"

  
"Did you notice the marks then?" Owen asked, crossing his arms.

  
"Obviously not, I would have told someone immediately" said Nick, him and I shared a look and rolled our eyes in unison. It was a weird bonding moment that I did not expect, nor did I want to experience again.

  
"You can check for motion detection on the cameras right?" I said, the protocol for when we can't find Rex running through my head, "Search through all security footage and filter it for motion."

  
I turned my attention back to the cage, looking for any movement again. I knew for sure she couldn't have escaped. There was no way! Or else Claire, Owen and I would have pulled up to a massacre of bodies this morning and bloody claw tracks leading away. She had to be in there somewhere.

  
Who knows what the lab had cooked up? When I first spoke to Henry about hatching another T-Rex he desperately tried to get me on board with modifying the DNA to allow the Rex to have fully grown arms. He rattled on about all the modifications he could make, listing various frog and fish DNA he could add. I obviously said no, not only wanting to keep the T-Rex as accurate to the originals, but I also knew how unpredictable gene splicing could be. You can't just take one aspect and glue it to the DNA of another animal, you cannot guarantee that only the desirable traits would develop.

  
"Found her!" Nick exclaimed, "She was on camera three at 4:05am, walking away from the viewing window."

  
"I bet you any money she was making those marks." Owen said, turning to me. "What time did the night shift finish this morning Nick?"

  
"4am, I came in on the dot, things run like clockwork round here these days. I passed John on the stairs and we chatted for a few minutes. You think she waited until he left to go make those marks? She would've been able to tell no one was in here - she can detect thermal radiation."

  
Owen and I turned to the glass. I thought for a second, processing what Nick had said. "What the _fuck_ kind of dinosaur have they made?" I shuddered.

  
"I don't even know if we can call it a dinosaur" Owen whispered.

  
Suddenly the trees rustled and there emerged the Indominus Rex from the treeline, as if she had just materialised from nowhere. White skinned and truly terrifying. She was staring at us intently, looking so deep into my eyes I felt like she could read my thoughts.

  
"She knew exactly what she was doing, for fucks sake!" I said, "She marked up that wall - she wanted us to think she escaped!"

  
"She knew to hide from the thermal cameras." added Owen, "She's been there all morning just waiting for us to walk straight into her trap."

  
I stormed from the room, stealing one last look at the dinosaur before I left. Owen was hot on my heels.

  
"Where are you going?" he asked, keeping up with my fast pace.

  
"I'm going to the lab. Henry Wu has a lot of fucking explaining to do!" I spat.

  
     ***  
We were barrelling down the dirt road towards the control room.

  
"Y'know, Emily I can see that you're upset... but you really don't have to try and kill us." Owen said, clutching onto his seat and the passenger door as I sped down the road.

  
"Shut up I'm thinking." I snapped, swerving to miss potholes and rocks in the road. "Don't be such a pussy, Grady. I'm a great driver."

  
"Yes suuuure you're a good driver-"

  
"Hey you're alive aren't you Grandpa? If you had drove it would've taken twice as long!" I said, pulling into the car park at head office, and jumping out the car as fast as I could.

  
"I can't believe all this, these people never learn! I don't know what I'm going to say when I see Wu's face!" snarled Owen, "Promise me that if I go to punch him you'll hold me back"

  
"To be honest I wouldn't mind decking him myself. Besides there's no way I could stop those muscles of yours, you could probably pick me up and throw me aside with one hand if I tried to stop you." I chuckled, turning to poke him in the bicep. As soon as I did it I regretted it. You fool Emily, don't let him know you've been looking at his biceps! _Idiot_.

  
He flashed me a smirk, "Well we might have to put that to the test at some point"

  
"You want to pick me up and throw me?!" I fake gasped, "That's not very nice of you!"

  
"What if I throw you down onto something soft?" He said, still smiling, "Like my bed?"

  
I let out a laugh, "God you really are relentless aren't you, Raptor Boy?" He shrugged off my comment and his smile remained. We made it to the lab and saw Mr Masrani and Henry already in there, it was busy outside with lots of tourists looking at the different displays.

  
I stormed into the room with Owen following me, both their heads snapped to us and Henry visibly let out a sigh.

  
"Mr Masrani, _Doctor Wu_." Owen greeted.

  
"Mr Grady, hello. Nice to see you again Miss Wilson" smirked Henry, making my blood boil. This arrogant little shit doesn't care one bit about the danger he nearly put us in.

 

"While I always enjoy _unwarranted_ visits, Mr Masrani and I are having a very grown up conversation- so I will have to ask you to run along."

  
Owen grazed past my shoulder, slamming his fists onto the desk they were both sat at. "Mr Masrani this man has created a monster, that marked up a wall as bait and tried to lure us into a trap. And we demand to know what excuse he has!" he shouted.

  
"I am well aware of what the Indominus did, Mr Grady, and I agree- you two deserve to be involved in the situation just as much as I am. If you would both like to take a seat-"

  
"I'm fine just here thank you." I said, still glaring at Wu. I didn't want to get any closer to him out of fear of what I might do. "Henry that dinosaur hid from thermal technology, she waited until she knew the control room was empty to mark up that wall, god knows what else it is capable of should it get the chance! We need to know exactly what DNA went into that animal!"

  
"That is classified information." Henry said, before taking a sip of his tea, "I cannot disclose that informa-"

  
"FOR GODSAKE HENRY!" I shouted, making everyone jump. "Don't you understand what could happen if this animal isn't taken care of properly?! This has gone on far too long unsupervised, this is not the time to be worrying about protocol!"

  
"She hid from those cameras, it was almost as if she wasn't even there anymore, she wasn't on any security footage and I know that paddock is riddled with cameras" Owen said.

  
"How is that possible? It's almost as if she camouflaged herself, what use would we have for an asset that can camouflage?" Masrani asked.

  
"Cuttlefish genes were added to help sustain an accelerated growth rate, cuttlefish have chromophores and reflective iridophores and leucophores that allow the skin to change colour." he sighed.

  
"And the thermoregulation? She hid from the thermal cameras..." I added, my mind contemplating the damage this dinosaur could cause if InGen really did want to use her as a weapon.

  
"We used Tree Frog DNA to help adapt her to a tropical climate," Henry said, standing up and walking around the room, "tree frogs can lower their metabolic functions and alter their pigmentation to allow them to avoid infrared detection."

  
"Who authorised you to do this?!" Masrani snapped, he had been nervously tapping his fingers on the desk for the past few minutes.

  
" _You did_." Henry stated simply, "Bigger. Scarier, more teeth I think were the words used in your memo. You can't say we didn't deliver, Simon." There was no denying that Henry had used his power for evil, creating much more than an ordinary dinosaur.

  
"Mr Masrani, if you don't mind me saying- this is a real fuck fest that you have allowed to go on at your park." Both Owen and Simon looked at me in shock, I was being brash but what was the point in hiding my feelings? "You've got people who have clearly gone mad with power making monsters, and you've allowed them to go and put your name all over it. These people don't know how to train a dinosaur, I bet half of them couldn't even pick up a dinosaur's shit."

  
"She's right." Owen added, stepping forward to stand by my side. "That dinosaur has been left isolated, with no human _or dinosaur_ contact, something needs to be done about it as soon as possible."

  
"Do you even have someone in charge of the paddock, overseeing all the operations?" I asked, as no one had never been mentioned to me.

  
"As I understand it, no one wanted the task of managing such a... _unique_ dinosaur."

  
"You mean no one wanted to after she ripped off that one guys arm?" Owen asked, staring at Simon as he bowed his head down, "That's the rumour I heard, that's why she's fed with the crane, right?"

  
Henry had sat back down at the table, he was staring at Mr Masrani, as were Owen and I - each of us looking for any answer or a plan of action. But alas, his head never came back up, he stared at the table. For the owner of the company- he sure didn't have a clue what he was doing when it came to the _actual_ dinosaurs.

  
A knock came from the glass door, a lab employee stood there, "Dr Wu, you have a phone call, its the genetics lab in San Francisco."

  
Henry nodded, "If you will excuse me..." he said before leaving and closing the door behind him.

  
I rushed to where he had been sitting, leaning forward to look Simon in the eyes. "Sir, this situation needs to be handled by someone who knows what they are doing. That animal has lived in isolation for too long, she is most likely already psychologically damaged from the neglect. She needs companionship, someone to keep her in check."

  
"I agree..." he said quietly, "What would you do?"

  
"Me?" I asked, unprepared for my opinion to actually be wanted for once.

  
"Yes. Emily, you have been one of the best hires in the history of this park. You rehabilitated that T-Rex within weeks, and I as understand it you have her eating out of your palm. I need you to help fix this mess, can you do that?"

  
I paused. I had been hired to lead the T-Rex, I had zero experience with genetically modified animals. Could I do this? My mouth went dry and my heart began to race. "I- I don't know... I mean I've never.... I wouldn't know where to begin- " I stuttered, running my hands through my hair.

  
"She can do it. I've seen her work, no one else cares for these dinosaurs as much as she does." Owen smiled, "You can do it Emily."

  
The sheer danger of the task put me off more than anything. I had never doubted my skills more that I did in this moment.

  
"Miss Wilson, I believe in you. Tell me what you need from me and I'll make it happen. I am giving you full security clearance for this whole project."

  
"Alright well...." I thought about my plan of action. "I need the full DNA analysis of the Indominus, no secrets - Wu and InGen need to be completely transparent in this."

  
"InGen?" Masrani asked, looking confused. "Owen I thought they were working with you and the raptors, not the new asset."

  
Owen paused and looked at me for reassurance before he told Simon anything. "We think Henry and InGen may be in this together. Hoskins, the lead on the raptor project desperately wants to use the raptors as a weapon, to replace military lives on the ground."

  
"With all the modifications on the Indominus, we think Henry has been helping them to make it a weapon as well. Hoskins thinks since the raptors are so intelligent Owen can tell them to do anything, like infiltrate enemy bases and search tunnels. I bet you anything the Indominus will be the next thing he wants in a field test." I added.

  
"I see...." Masrani sighed rubbing his face with his hands.

  
"And you understand why that's a terrible idea right?" I asked cautiously, hoping he didn't see it as a great idea like Hoskins did.

  
"No I completely understand!" he said, snapping his head up to look at me. "This park was never meant to be about warfare, I only ever wanted to showcase these amazing animals and make people realise how inferior we truly are..." 'Thank god' I thought to myself - glad we were all on the same page.

  
The door opened again and Wu had returned. Masrani stood up from his chair immediately, buttoning his suit jacket and regaining a sense of authority and confidence. "Doctor Wu. You are to cease all projects immediately until I personally have overseen and approved every single one. From here on out the laboratory budget will be frozen and no assets will be made until I say so." Simon said sternly.

  
Henry looked horrified, "Sir you can't just-"

  
"I most certainly can, Doctor. From now on Miss Wilson will be overseeing the new asset, any information that she asks for you will provide it immediately. No secrets Henry, or I will take everything you've built up from you. You'll have _nothing_ left. Mr Grady will be helping her see to the new asset, you are to answer to them from now on. Understand?"

  
"... yes Sir." He said calmly.

  
"Miss Wilson, how would you like to proceed?" Simon asked. All eyes were on me once again. I had major de ja vu to being back at the Indominus paddock. How was I supposed to handle this mess?

  
"Doctor... I want a full list of _all_ DNA used in the modification of the asset. I don't care how little of it was used, I want it all to be accounted for. I need to know what this thing is made of for me to be able to train it properly, I cannot predict any behaviour without knowing exactly what she's made of. She is clearly highly intelligent, and I want to know what made her that way, otherwise she could easily undermine our entire security system. Is that clear?" I said slowly, making sure my voice was stern and confident.

  
"Yes Miss Wilson." Henry nodded.

  
"I want that within the next hour. Understood?"

  
"Of course."

  
"Okay, Owen is there anything you'd like to add?" I asked, just really wanting some reassurance.

  
"No I think that is it for now. Doctor Wu we do need a complete and truthful report. No hidden secrets, no bullshit." Owen glared, crossing his arms and tensing his jaw.

  
Henry nodded and I spoke again, "Okay that will be all for now, you can get started now." I waved him away just to piss him off.

  
"Very good Emily" Masrani smiled (I ignored how condescending the statement sounded since I knew he would be lost with mine and Owens help), "What do you need from me?"

  
"I need a maintenance team to make all necessary adjustments to her cage, I want names and numbers asap. Also I suggest you look into InGen and all the applications they have made for the raptors."

  
"That can be easily done."

  
"Great. Owen, call Barry now. Tell him to follow Hoskins and to listen in on him when he gets a phone call."

  
"You think Henry will be calling him?" he asked, pulling out his mobile.

  
"I think its a smart idea just to be sure, if Henry and InGen are working together they'll be keeping each other in the loop at all times." Owen nodded and took the phone call outside.

  
"You are a natural leader Emily, you're going to do a great job I can already tell." smiled Masrani.

  
"Thank you Sir, but I can't help but feel like we may be too late." I sighed, hoping to god I was only being hypercritical. "You should definitely freeze all Wu's projects immediately, that lab should been unoccupied and all assets put into storage. He shouldn't have any access, I just can't trust him, I hope you understand."

  
"Anything you want to do, I will support wholeheartedly." he smiled again, pulling his phone out as Owen returned to the office, "I will get started on this right now."

  
"Oh one more thing!" I shouted, Masrani paused and turned to look at me. I looked up at Owen, "We want a raise." I said simply, pointing towards the both of us, "A good one as well!"

  
Masrani laughed at my brashness, "Of course Boss, I'll gladly make it happen."

  
After he had left the room, Owen let out a laugh. "Fucking hell, you don't fuck about do you, _Boss_ "

  
"I don't hear you saying thank you for your raise, _Raptor Boy_!" I smiled, beginning the walk back to the car.

  
"I'm sorry, thank you so much. You're doing such a good job, you can really rally a work force when you need to, kudos"

  
"Don't be too thankful, we've got a lot on our plate, Owen. We really need to work together on this, can I trust you to help make this work?" I looked up at him questioningly.

  
"Of course, I'm with you 100%, Boss." He said with a grin, I knew I could trust him when it came to the dinosaurs, even if I didn't trust him when it came to anything else.

  
"Okay great, I need to stop by the see Rex and Alyssa first and we're straight back to the Indominus."

  
"No problem, I'll drive so we can make it there in one piece!" he laughed, earning a slap on the arm from me, "We really do need a name for her though, how about Indy? Get it?" he said as we buckled up our seatbelts.

  
I stared at him blankly, "God Owen that's a shit name for a dinosaur! I feel sorry for your future kids" I chuckled and we drove of towards the T-Rex enclosure.   
 

 

 

  
 


	7. Chapter Seven - Losing friends left and right

The last three days had been a blur. I had been working 18 hour days, hardly sleeping and hardly eating. My life had always revolved around dinosaurs, now so more than ever. 'Indy' (as Owen had named her) was dominating every second of my life, closely followed by Rex. It had been non-stop planning and bonding with Indy. Once Wu finally sent us the full and truthful DNA analysis, I had been assessing how best to rehabilitate her. Owen was a big help since Raptor DNA had been added to increase her intelligence, and so we had to really think about how she would respond to training as she was much more intelligent than the average dinosaur...

  
"I just hate that she listens to you more than me" scoffed Owen as we looked over her paddock plans- I knew he was only joking as he wasn't petty enough to get upset over something so silly.

  
"What can I say?" I smirked, gesturing towards myself, "I'm obviously the _better_ alpha"

  
He raised his eyebrows and let out a chuckle, "Then what does that make me? You're clearly the alpha- she's the - well she's an alpha too, and I'm just some guy she _sometimes_ listens to."

  
"It makes you my little assistant" I laughed, tapping him on the shoulder in an overly condescending way so that he knew I was joking. "You're clearly better with the little dinosaurs, leave the big ones to me."

  
We had been running over the plans for Indy's enclosure for when she was moved to the main park. I knew a lot of changes had to be done in order to adjust to her intelligence, and more security measures needed to be in place on account of her extra abilities. We were drawing out plans in my office, Owen trusted Barry to run the raptors alone but there was no way I trusted Alyssa to do the same with Rex- so we were staying in my office where I could keep an eye on things.

  
Ever since I had taken on the task of training Indy, Alyssa had gotten increasingly snippy and annoyed with me, as if she was jealous I was spending time away from her. I had made a mental note to pull her into a meeting as she was nearing the end of her probation period and I wasn't sure I could fully trust her to run the paddock alone. Plus if she snapped at me one more time as if I was a little kid that needed telling off I was going to flip my shit- I would not tolerate being spoken to like that.

  
The construction of the paddock had been put on hold months ago when Indy ate her sibling, and it just never got restarted again. Me and Owen had the plans in front of us and were simply sketching over it to accommodate the changes. The main attraction Indy had to offer was the fact that she was truly terrifying, tourists would fill stands above the paddock and watch as she tore through animals and captured live prey.

  
"I want to make sure she has plenty of space" I sighed, staring into Rex's cage as Owen jotted things down.

  
"Obviously," he replied, "I don't know what we are going to do about the bleachers and the fact that she'll be seen from all angles."

  
"You're right, she'll have zero privacy, she's already lived her whole life in isolation watching people watch her from behind glass." I sighed again, scratching my head.

  
Owen didn't reply, obviously stuck for a solution. He began to spin in the chair and it really started to get on my nerves. You would think that spending every second with each other would mean I could tolerate him more. But no, it just meant I got to spend all my time watching Alyssa pass by the door trying to catch his attention. And then I had to deal with her glares every time he spoke to me and ignored her presence. Part of me wishes I never agreed to let him help me in the first place, but Mr Masrani obviously thought he would be a useful partner.

  
I decided to check the contact list Simon had sent over, wondering if there was such a find as a 'Paddock Design Advisor' who could help us think of a more suitable but unique way for Indy to be viewed. I walked over to where Owen was sat and pushed him away on the office chair, sending him rolling over towards the other side of the room.

  
"Hey what was that for?!" he laughed, kicking himself off the wall and rolling back over to me.

  
"I needed to look at my laptop. You were in my way." I said, not really paying attention but scouring my documents for the list I had saved. I felt him come to a stop next to me as I was kneeling on the floor.

  
"You can sit down if you want, you don't have to kneel." he said standing up from the chair.

  
"Oh don't worry Owen, she's used to being on her knees" came a voice from the doorway, and then a laugh from Alyssa who had appeared holding some documents.

  
I turned to her, truly shocked at her comment, "Excuse me?" I snapped, glaring at her and standing to put my hands on my hips.

  
"God it was joke," she smirked, still laughing and filing away the documents into the drawers in the desk.

  
"Well I don't find it very funny..." I said sternly, she simply rolled her eyes and carried on putting things away, "Hey! Stop what you're doing and listen to me!"

  
"I was only kidding Emily" she sighed, putting the papers down and leaning against the desk.

  
"No I'm sick of your attitude Alyssa. You've been intolerable this whole weekend and I can't deal with it right now. If you have a problem with me or any part of your job you need to bring it to my attention, because I am sick to death of having to look for meaning in your sighs and eye rolls" I half-shouted.

  
"I don't have any issues I swear!" She was beginning to look nervous, she obviously didn't think I would call attention to how she had been acting this past week, and now that I had she was scared to be in trouble. I was very aware of Owen stood next to me and decided to not go all out on Alyssa for his sake, it wasn't fair for him to have to listen to me telling people off all the time. "I would like to see you tomorrow morning after the first feeding, we can discuss your position here as your probation period is coming to an end. I suggest you think about any issues you have and we can either find solutions for them or we will have to rethink your job here, understood?" I said calmly, trying to sound as nice as I could.

  
"Yes of course," she stammered, "First thing tomorrow, but I have no problems here, I love working with you and Rex I swear! I'm sorry if I've-"

  
"Alyssa, I'm not saying you're going to be fired, I like having you here but I want to know that you are happy here, okay? I'm not mad, but we can talk about it tomorrow when we don't have company." I smiled, trying to be as reassuring as I could.

  
Alyssa simply nodded and finished putting her documents away in silence. She had the look of a puppy who had just been kicked, I sighed and put my head in my heads- I felt terrible! I turned to the cage, I couldn't bear to watch Alyssa. I waited until I heard the door close before letting out a sigh once again, "Owen I'm so sorry. I feel like 4 out of 5 times we're together you're watching me shout at someone."

  
"Actually at this point it _is_ 5 out of 5" he smiled, I didn't reciprocate. "Are you okay?" he asked, looking genuinely concerned for me.

  
"I just - I don't... ugh." I ran my hands through my hair and sat on the office chair, "I feel like I've gotten so aggressive during my time here, and I'm starting to worry that it's not just stress... Do you think I was out of line just then?" I almost whispered.

  
"I think you were justified, Alyssa has been clearly annoyed all week, and I'm sorry but it's probably my fault." Owen said, leaning against the desk in front of me.

  
"Don't be silly, she's not been snapping at you and glaring at you - she can't get enough you!" I chuckled, playing with my hands in my lap.

  
"You weren't out of line today, or when we were first in here and you told me about Indy- you've got to remember that you are her boss." he said softly, trying to be supportive, "And like with Hoskins and Doctor Wu, they had both threatened the lives of your animals and all our lives by not disclosing information about Indy, they were the ones in the wrong and you can't feel bad about that..."

  
"Thanks, I suppose your right." I said, "But what about Max? I broke his nose Owen for gods sake- "

  
"Are you seriously telling me that you feel guilty for defending yourself against a man who verbally assaulted you and probably would've taken it much further had you not stood up for yourself?" He asked, frowning at the absurdity of the idea.

  
"Well no but, I didn't have to resort to violence"

  
"No Emily, you did the right thing. You taught him a valuable lesson: 'Be nice to people or you'll end up with a broken nose and zero friends'" He laughed.

  
"He has no friends?!" I gasped, genuinely feeling bad even though I knew I was justified.

  
"Yup, Barry and I made sure of that. He was a pig, Emily, and I'm sorry that you had to meet him." He said quietly, it was his turn to look down at his hands.

  
Despite all appearances, Owen could actually be nice every once in a while, even if he did annoy me to no end...

  
"Hey" I said, standing up so I was between his legs as he sat on the desk, "You've been really nice to me today, and I don't actually think I've thanked you for helping me out through all this. And so, I will give you _one_ free hug if you want it, this offer is valid for the next hour only and the offer will _never_ be repeated."

  
Owen let out a chesty laugh and held his arms out, "Wow! How can I turn down such a rare offer? Come 'ere"

  
I leant into his arms and squeezed my arms around his neck, his encircled my waist. I was used to being in this position with men I had dated, but this hug felt different. I guess I had never embraced a man in a purely platonic way. I sort of like the way his hands rested around my waist, it felt weird to not have hands on my ass for a change. His neck smelt like sweat and old cologne and I must say it was an odd combination that I actually enjoyed. Something about the smell of hard work was enticing to me, I liked to be with people who were hardworking, as on a subconscious level I must think that would translate into a good partner.

  
I pulled away and his hands rested on my hips for a moment while I looked at him. He was smiling at me in a weird way and it made me uncomfortable, "What are you smiling at Grady?" I removed his hands from my hips and replaced them with my own in a authoritative way.

  
"Nothing... I'm just happy that not only did I get a hug from you, even though I've heard you're probably one of the least affectionate and unromantic people on this island, but I'm smug that you _actually_ enjoyed it." He smirked.

  
"Least affectionate?! What's that supposed to- ugh y'know what, I don't know why I even thought about pretending that wasn't true. You're right I hate feelings and anything touchy-feely, so you should be thankful because you're the first person I hugged, whos been just a friend, in about a decade!" I chuckled, pointing my finger at him.

  
"Wow we're friends?!" he gasped. Shit - I should not have said that, it will only make him more relentless.

  
"I suppose- on some level... I may be willing to consider you as a friend" I said slowly, "But that doesn't mean I like you!"

  
"Awh Emily! That's the sweetest thing anyone's ever said to me!" He jokingly gasped, throwing his arms around me again in a bone-crushing hug.

  
"Alright alright, get off before you piss me off and make me change my mind!" I said, the whole situation making me uncomfortable now.

  
Oh god Emily, don't go getting yourself involved in his womanizer shit.

 

  
****

 

  
*A FEW MONTHS LATER*

 

  
"Indy, come on don't give me that bullshit!" I shouted, desperately trying to save this training session. Today marked the three month anniversary of Indy being taken into my care, and she was determined to ruin the momentous occasion for me.

  
She had been growling and turning her back to me every time I asked her to do something. "C'mon... come here, now" I said calmly, trying to get her to walk back to where I was stood on the paddock wall. "Come here, NOW!" I shouted, thankfully she stomped over. "Good girl," I said, clicking my pen and throwing her a rat to reward her for good behavior, "Alright, now - Chest up, Stand tall, Good!" I threw her a second rat and then it was Owen's cue to open the gate releasing the live deer into the cage.

 

Her head turned instantly towards the sound of the gate sliding, understanding that that meant food. "Hey!" I snapped, "Eyes on me!" Indy grumpily listened and turned her head to me, eager to catch her prey. Nonetheless I continued, "Okay, now wait... waaaaiiiiit. Indy was always must less willing to wait for her lunch than Rex was, whenever she ignored me it was a sharp reminder that Indy and I still hardly knew each other - we didn't have the same bond as Rex and I did. "Okay - GO!" I shouted and she bounded off back into the trees, hunting her lunch.

  
I let out a sigh of relief, resting my head against my hands on the railing. Some day it feels like Indy is just difficult for the sake of being difficult, she is very intelligent and sometimes will act up just to annoy me. Thankfully times like this were there to remind me that she did, at least on some level, respect me. I think.

  
It was just turning 1pm and I was desperate to visit Rex for her afternoon shows, but first I had a meeting with the lead contractor in charge of Indy's new enclosure, and then I had to see to a check-up on a few brontosaurus's. But in all honesty, I wanted nothing more than to go home and go to sleep. These few months have been hectic and it didn't help that things with Owen had been pretty icy recently. It all started when I had to cancel some after-work plans so that I could see Michael. He didn't appreciate being dumped for some dude I was sleeping with, he didn't seem to understand that all my social time was going into Indy and Rex, I completely disregarded my own life for the sake of theirs. It was strange spending my time as an animal behaviourist but then to have such a complete ignorance for my own personal time and mental health. My mental health had also been something I pushed to one side, trying to cover up sadness with one-night stands and work; but this year I had vowed to try and change that. And as selfish as it seemed, some days I needed to get away from work and Owen in order to put my own feelings first.

  
Speaking of the devil, Owen had walked up to me after I climbed off the step ladder leading to the top of the paddock, "So... meeting next, yeah?" he asked, following me to my car where I had left my phone.

  
"Uh yeah I guess..." I said, longing to have just a second of peace and quiet, I hadn't even eaten yet today! I had been going 100mph since 4am.

  
"You guess? Oh are you blowing me off so you can blow off some dude again?" he said snidely, leaning against the hood of the car.

  
I sighed, I definitely wasn't in the mood for this shit today. "Oh not this again, Owen. I really don't have the energy for this today!"

  
"No energy, eh? Did Michael tire you out last night?" he mumbled with a sour look on his face.

  
"Are you serious?! How old are you, Owen?! I didn't realise I was working with a five year old! Yes I am tired. Tired of constantly having to put up with your shit. Tired of waking up at 4am. Tired of going to sleep at 2am. Tired of talking about dinosaurs every fucking second of the day. Tired of never seeing my friends. Tired of having to justify it to _you_ , of all people. I am tired, Owen!!" I spat, my voice trembling -half in rage and half in sadness of realising how monotonous my life had gotten. "So if you can't talk to me with an ounce of respect, don't fucking bother speaking to me at all!!"

  
I stormed off to the paddock control room, leaving Owen stood at the car speechless. I entered the room and slammed the door behind me, putting on the lock incase Owen was crazy enough to follow me- if I had to see him walk through that door I might have punched him.

  
After regaining my breath I walked up to the control room windows, looking for Indy before realising she would still be toying with that poor deer. It was okay for me to want to look after myself before my job right? Or should I be focussing on doing the job I was hired for, Mr Masrani did give me a really good raise and I should be working hard to prove that I deserved it, right? This inner turmoil couldn't go on for much longer, I wouldn't allow it - I'll come to a solution soon (I hoped). After a quick word with the rest of the staff (steadfastly ignoring the knocks and soft shouts at the door from Owen.) I had managed to actually form a functional team of for Indy, a few paddock workers and supervisors, some capable night shift workers as well as a brilliant and brave man by the name of Ryan.

  
Ryan was a paddock supervisor but had quickly become one of my most trusted workers because of the passion he had for the job and the adoration he had for Indy. He was probably one of the sweetest people you would meet but could quickly turn into your worst nightmare. He had told me stories about how his friends called him crazy. He told me stories about how he messed with them and how there were times when he was sure he had sparked true fear in their eyes. Regardless of whether it was true or not, he was definitely the best person to be tending to Indy when Owen and I weren't there. After talking him through the usual procedures for tonight (which I did everyday for some reason, even though he probably knew them better than I did at this point), I left and opened the control room to a thoroughly annoyed Owen Grady.

  
"Emily, what the fuck? You can't just lock me out!" he said with his eyebrows raised, waving his arms about angrily.

  
At this point I didn't want to get mad again so I adopted an 'I don't give a fuck, I'm going to be a sarcastic bitch' approach. "And yet... I did" I smiled, "C'mon hurry, we need to get to the meeting."

  
He followed me back to the car in a huff and the entire car ride I drowned out his sighs with my loud music. The music was getting too loud for me to even hear myself think, but it was annoying him as well so I stubbornly left it at maximum volume.

  
The meeting went smoothly and we straightened out the final plans for the paddock. Both Owen and I put our argument aside and discussed the plans with as much civility as we could - both knowing that this paddock needed to be perfect for our Dinosaur. I only wanted what was best for her, I didn't want her to feel cooped up or isolated. We had figured out a way for her to be viewed without making her feel like she was under a microscope. The paddock contractor had agreed that the elevated stands were a bad idea and were not only potentially damaging for Indy, but there also posed a massive health and safety risk! He had proposed a view alternative ideas while still maintaining the original idea that Mr Masrani had signed off on.

  
The paddock was going to be expanded considerably, with only half of it being viewable from 'bleachers'. I was still skeptical about the idea of Indy being stared down at but she would have an abundance of trees and covered areas to have privacy. Large spiral staircases would lead to the bleachers, we kept the original double helix design for the stairs. Also the bleachers would be highly secured and multiple nets and 'fences' would prevent any casualties should someone fall or jump in. On the ground level there would be a viewing platform for guests to be able to see into the thick trees. A real struggle we had was having a way for guests to see Indy without her seeing them and feeling scrutinised. One-way mirrors were suggested but both Owen and I agreed Indy might react negatively to her reflection. A one way pane of black glass would ensure the guests cannot be seen by Indy. And to prevent her from being able to detect the thermal radiation the glass will be made in a way that prevents heat signatures from being visible through it. Once it is ready Owen and I will thoroughly inspect it to make sure we are happy with it before it gets fitted.

  
Finally, multiple cages will be fitted to make feeding time less monotonous and prevent Indy from predicting where the food will come from. In her holding paddock (before she was put into my care) she had formed an unhealthy attachment to the crane used to feed her dead animals. This way she would be able to chase live prey, meaning I can show off my training to the guests and they get to see a more exciting feeding show. Hopefully it all ran smoothly and Indy got well-accustomed to her new enclosure. Fingers crossed at least.

  
"So that was a good meeting, right?" I asked Owen, as we walked out of the main office building and back to my car, "You're definitely happy with the enclosure?"

  
"Yes of course, I think it's going to be great!" He smiled. He was getting really excited for the public to see Indy after all our hard work, he thinks we've done the park a huge favour by actually training this monster of a dinosaur. If we hadn't we might have had a crisis on our hands and a 50ft killing machine at our heels.

  
We came to a stop at the hood of the car, I turned to him and smiled, "Great. Me too." The happy moment didn't last long as I remembered the fight from earlier, and judging by the way his face dropped... he remembered too.

  
He sighed and opened the passengers side door. I let out a sigh as well and ran my hands through my hair, before getting in the drivers side and starting the engine. We sat in silence as I drove in the direction of the raptor enclosure, it was just turning 2:30 pm - the work day was far from over. We sat in silence and my mind ran wild with thought. My brain had so many open tabs at the minute I was sure that, just like Google Chrome, it would crash any day now...

  
I didn't want to be mad at Owen, to be honest I didn't want to be anything with Owen. For the longest time I had ignored him, desperately avoiding him so I didn't run the risk of 'falling for him' like so many girls before me had done. But I was a hypocrite! I know for a fact the men on this island do the exact same thing with me... We both have a reputation for sleeping-around, playing with emotions and refusing to consider real relationships.

  
But now that I've got to know Owen a bit better, I've seen all his great qualities - but I wished I had never seen them! Because all it's done is make me realise that no man will ever be perfect to me, I'm going to keep sleeping around until I am no longer attractive and men no longer fall at my feet. I had come to realise that my real problem was a deep seated fear of commitment. Any man that got close enough to make a lasting impression, that made me smile or made me feel some kind of flutter in my tummy - I had turned my back on. After a while loving actions became repulsive, they no longer made me feel special - I felt belittled, and I would do everything in my power to not see that person.  
As much as I tried to ignore the chemistry between Owen and I, and as much as I hated admitting that he was actually a nice man who could probably make me happy if he and I decided to start dating - I didn't want to risk ending up hating him and losing him as a friend. He was one of the only few people on this island who I could actually tolerate in a purely platonic way, and I would hate to see that get ruined by my own curiosity and selfishness. Because I knew for a fact he would end up making my blood boil, and I'd get sick of him like every other man I had been with in the past.

  
With last boyfriend in school it was the same. I would ignore text messages, make up excuses to not see him, get short and snappy at the simplest things. And so I made a decision then and there to never engage in any kind of relationship with the man next to me. Or any man for that matter - not until I had got a grip of my issues. Men were off limits from now on... Was that a crazy statement? It certainly felt absurd! Am I just being neurotic? Maybe I just haven't met the right guy. Ughhhhh. This was exhausting, my issues were far too complex to figure out in the space of this one car journey, I definitely needed a trained mental health professional and at least 30 hours of sleep before making any brash decisions.

  
"Are you taking me to the Raptor enclosure?" Owen asked suddenly, snapping me out of my inner turmoil.

  
I turned and looked at the confused expression on his face, "Yes. I as understand it, you work here" His confusion was making me confused. The whole thing was just very confusing to say the least.

  
"You just mentioned going to see Rex this morning that's all" he mumbled, resting his elbow on the window and leaning his cheek against his hand.

  
"Yeah Owen, I'm going to see Rex," I said, was he expecting us to go together? "Did you forget that you actually train the raptors or something?" I let out a small laugh.

  
"No Emily, its not that! Just - ugh! Forget about it okay?!" he snapped.

  
"No tell me, did you need to see Rex for some reason? Are you two fucking dating or something?"

  
"I said forget it!!" he snapped again, raising his voice significantly.

  
I was completely lost! I decided to just do as he said and continued to drive to the raptor enclosure.

  
We arrived and I pulled up just in time to see Max do a double take at my car and swiftly make his way back into the building he was leaving. He was clearly still embarrassed about the whole nose-breaking thing.

  
"Thanks." Owen muttered, barely even above whisper volume, and opened the car door.

  
" _Forget about it_." I muttered back, repeating the snide words he had used earlier. He sighed and paused for a moment before closing the door again.  
I turned to him confused. What was a polite way to say, 'Erm please leave my car now thank you'? He looked at me with an expression I couldn't decipher for the life of me. I raised my eyebrows and wobbled my head in a way that said 'What the fuck?!'

  
"I was confused when I realised you were driving me back to the Raptors because-" his mouth opened but the end of the sentence was unwilling to leave, "because - I was expecting us to go see Rex together. And then I remembered that we are only a team when it comes to Indy, and you probably don't enjoy spending time with me as much as I enjoy spending it with you."

  
"Owen I - " I started, not even sure what I was going to say, I was sort of relieved when he interrupted me.

  
"No it's alright, I know you don't really like me and I know we'll never _really_ be friends. I guess its a good thing I sort of made you hate me with all those Michael comments." He said with a small laugh, "See you at Indy's tomorrow morning - don't bother picking me up, I'll drive myself there from now on."

  
And with that he left the car...

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sup. 
> 
> Has anyone noticed that I've been sneaking in Achievement Hunters into this fic??
> 
> Any Rooster Teeth fans reading? Hmu lemme know if RT Fanfic would be something you're interested in...


	8. Chapter Eight - Half-Naked, Wet and Soapy.

 

After that day in the car, I had done everything to try and get him to talk to me. If I wasn't asking him anything to do with Indy or the Raptors, he didn't care. If I asked him about how his day had been or if he had any fun plans for the weekend he would give me blunt answers, typically five words or less. This had made my days a bit miserable, I didn't realise how much I had relied on Owens witty comments and eye-rolls to brighten my days. So I made a plan to confront him, out of work hours, so there was no one but us two and he couldn't start talking to anyone else whenever I tried to approach him.

  
It was 8pm and I had just finished working at Rex's enclosure, I had gotten a text from Ryan telling me all was well at Indy's enclosure, this meant I could focus purely on Owen without any distractions. I couldn't wait for when Indy and Rex would only be a few minutes away, rather than 20 minute car ride, it would make emergencies must easier.  
I had arrived at my humble home and reheated some leftover soup from yesterday, I hadn't really be eating much because of this whole stressful situation with Owen. Stress didn't react very well with my body, I always lost my appetite and I rapidly lost weight which was obviously very unhealthy and made me feel like shit. I had lost about 20 pounds since the day Doctor Wu told me about Indy - a lot of my clothes were getting baggy and I hated it, I couldn't wait for things to be back to normal and hopefully fixing things with Owen would help. I sent a text to Barry while eating my soup at my small dining room table.

  
**TO: BARRY**  
**Hey Barry, Is Owen still at the paddock?? Need to talk to him about the Raptors x**

  
A few minutes passed before I received a reply, I was putting my bowl in the sink when I heard my phone buzz.

  
**FROM: BARRY**  
**No he's gone home. Is it urgent?? Can you tell me instead? xxx**

  
Perfect! Time for me to pay Mr Grady a visit.

  
**TO: BARRY**  
**It's not urgent, don't panic! It can wait until tomorrow, thank you x**

  
I collected my car keys and locked up the house (I know I wasn't exactly going to be robbed since most people left their houses and cars open but it was a routine I never seemed to be able to break). I drove the short 3 minutes to Owen's because I felt too lazy to walk. His bike was parked outside, meaning he was inside, so I park up and prepared myself to talk to him.

  
I approached the front door and knocked cautiously. All the lights were on so he was definitely inside, so I was confused when he didn't answer the door. I waited a few minutes before knocking again, this time louder. A few moments passed again and I heard thudding coming down the stairs. The door swung open and I was met with a soaking wet Owen with bubbles in his hair and clutching a towel around his waist. _Holy shit._

  
"Emily what's wrong?! Is it Indy? Is it the Raptors?!" he quizzed, looking more and more worried the longer I didn't speak. Honestly, I was speechless at the sight of him half naked. I know we weren't on great terms but, damn, I can appreciate a hot body when I see one.

  
"Emily what's wrong!!" he shouted, panic evident in his voice and in his facial expression.

  
"Erm noth-" I cleared my throat, which had gone dry, "Nothing. Nothing is wrong." I said quietly, desperately trying to keep my eyes above shoulder level, fighting their desire to wander.

  
He let out a sigh of relief and took a step back, "Christ don't scare me like that!" A moment passed and I was still stood at the door with my mouth agape and my eyes wide. He straightened his shoulders and regained his calm, "So... what do you want? You've never visited me before."

  
"I erm .... I -" _Shit_. What was I here for again? I stumbled through some random syllables, never forming a sentence. _This was stupid, I wasn't prepared for this_ , I thought. I was only going to make things worse. "Erm... well - NEVER MIND!" I said quickly, turning on my heel and running back to my car. I jumped in and started it immediately, my tires spun gravel in all directions as I turned back toward the dirt road I came from. In my rear view mirror I saw Owen, still stood at the doorway, still clutching his towel. Just watching me drive away...

  
I cursed myself, what the fuck was that about Emily? Why had I been such a pussy?! I just completely froze, that hardly ever happened to me, I always had something to say! He must think I've gone completely mad. _Well done Emily_ , I thought.

  
When I got home again I walked straight in and fell head first into the sofa, letting out a long and loud groan, muffled slightly by the cushion. I laid there for a few minutes before locking the front door and making my way upstairs to get ready for bed.

  
I removed my makeup halfheartedly, I was sort of on auto-pilot, all I could think about was what just happened at Owen's. I brushed out my hair and took my clothes off after making sure my curtains were closed (another pointless habit I couldn't break - it's not as I had any neighbors that would spy on me). I jumped in the shower and tried to let the warm water and soap cleanse all my stress, I tried to do this every morning but it never worked - I don't know why this time would be any different.

  
I decided I would just get in bed and hoped that a decent nights sleep might change my perspective a bit. So I towel dried my hair and changed into a baggy top and some clean underwear, the island was still really hot at night so I always tried to dress appropriately. Thankfully I was able to fall into a peaceful slumber, despite my brain being in absolute shambles. Until I was suddenly awoken by a loud banging coming from downstairs...

  
"Emily!! EMILY WAKE UP!" came a muffled that sounded remarkably like Owen's. I hoped to God it wasn't. "EMILY! It's Owen, open up!!"

  
**Fuck.**

Fuck. Fuck. FUCK.

  
I wasn't here! I was asleep! Yes that will do! I'll just lay here until he leaves. He has to leave right?

  
"EMILY!" He shouted still, "OPEN THE DOOR!"

  
_'Stay there all night if you want matey, I'm not coming down'_ I thought smugly. What a completely rational and grown up plan, well-done Emily.

  
I don't want to look at him, I don't want to be near him. If I spend one minute with him I'll burst into flames of pure embarrassment. No one on this Island has never made me embarrass myself like Owen Grady had, and no more I say - NO MORE! He'll leave soon, I was sure of it -

  
**Clink**.  
What the fuck??

  
**Clink. Clink. CLINK.**

  
What was he- Was he throwing rocks at my windows?!

  
I rolled out of bed angrily and ripped open the curtains. I slid the window up and sure enough a stone came flying in - narrowly missing my head.

  
"OI! GRADY! What the fuck, are you trying to break my windows?!" I shouted.

  
"You were ignoring me!!" He shouted back, now fully clothed but still looking just as appetising as he had been when he was half-naked. "What was I supposed to do?"

  
"You were supposed to leave!! I was sleeping!" I lied, hoping he'd believe me.

  
"No you weren't you liar!!" He shouted, a smile tugging at his lips. I think it was a smile - my eye sight was quite bad and it was hard to read his expression in the darkness. "I want to talk... please just let me in."

  
"No, I don't entertain guests at this ungodly hour. Go home, Owen!" Oh for fuck sake, this _ungodly_ hour? What the fuck was wrong with my brain? It was only 1am for crying out loud!

  
Owen definitely laughed this time, "C'mon Emily. Just let me in you idiot."

  
"No! What do you want?" I asked accusingly, "You and I aren't friends anymore, _remember_?!"

  
"I know I've been an idiot these past few days, and I'm really sorry." he said, "Please just let me in so we can talk..."

  
"What if I don't want to talk?" I asked. My god why was I being so stubborn all of a sudden, a few hours ago I was desperate to be friends with him again - but now it's like I had an entirely different mindset and I was suddenly pissed off. Now that he wanted to be nice to me again, I automatically had to be a bitch, but when he was the one annoyed at me I was determined to make things right. I wonder if we'll ever be able to like each other simultaneously?

  
"Please Emily..." he said, so quietly that I barely even heard him from my window, "I don't want us to be fighting anymore."

  
I thought about it for a second. We would only ever be able to be friends again if we both tried our best- that meant I had to stop being a stubborn bitch and let him explain himself. I closed the window and the curtains without saying a word and started making my way downstairs. I heard more shouts coming from outside - he probably thought I was ignoring him again and just going back to sleep.

  
I stopped at the front door and rested my head against it, listening to his pleas from the other side of the door. He seemed desperate - just as I had been earlier. Maybe I should open the door wrapped in a towel and dripping wet - just so he could see how hard it was to make coherent sentences. (That sounds really cocky on my part, but when you spend half your life single you get pretty good at loving yourself since no one else was going to. And fuck it - I was pretty hot if I did say so myself.)

  
Finally I opened the door to see him still shouting up at my bedroom window, not realising that I was now in front of him.

  
"Hey Raptor Boy," I shouted to grab his attention, "You coming in?" He looked at me and smiled, rushing up my porch stairs and enveloping me in a hug when he got to the door.

  
This was a new type of hug for me. It was desperate and needy. I clutched onto him, not realising how much I had missed him these past few days. He was doing just the same, pulling me as close as he could to him, I was almost on my tip toes with how hard he was pulling my up towards him. We stayed there for a few minutes, just appreciating each others presence. I suppose I had gotten pretty close to him these past few months, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if I called him a close friend.

  
"I've missed you so much," he mumbled into my neck, "I was so stupid to make all those comments about Michael." He let me go and rested his hands on my shoulders, "I don't give a shit about the guys you date, I don't care - I was just jealous and my ego was hurting because you would sleep with him and not me. But that was petty and that doesn't even matter to me, I just want to be your friend, Emily." 

  
I processed this for a moment. So he jealous because he wanted to be the one sleeping with me? But since then he's decided he doesn't want to sleep with me, and now he just wants to be friends? Is that what I was hearing? I was almost offended but I suppose I didn't really want to sleep with him either, I was just happy getting to know him better.

  
"I suppose we can be friends then," I smirked, _"Raptor Boy_."

  
A cheesy grin appeared on his face and just like that all was back to normal.

  
"Great!" he exclaimed, clapping his hands together, "Do you mind if I come in for a bit? You've just reminded me of something else I need to talk to you about."

  
I nodded and stood aside to let him into my humble abode. I locked the door and sat down on the sofa, "What's up?"

  
"Listen Emily, I'm worried about you..." he said somberly, his mood shifting instantly.

  
I let out a laugh, "What? What do you mean you're worried about me?"

  
"Well" he sighed, running his hands through his hair and leaning back into the sofa, "You've clearly been really stressed lately, you've not been eating, you've not been sleeping well clearly-"

  
"Clearly?! What's that meant to mean? You saying I look like shit or something?"

  
"No its not that- you just definitely look more tired than usual, like you've been drained of happiness and energy."

  
"Wow thanks" I huffed.

  
"And I feel like you don't trust anyone, not even me, to do any of the jobs you tell them to do"

  
"That's not true!" I argued.

  
"Okay soo, why do we always make plans in you office and not mine?" he asked. I didn't reply because I knew the point he was trying to make and he was right. "It's because you don't trust Alyssa to run the T-Rex paddock on her own, isn't it?" he said softly.

  
"Well she's only been here a few months and she's not that confident on her own-"

  
"So train her more! Don't babysit her everyday, she won't learn with you constantly being there to make decisions for her"

  
"I don't need you to tell me how to train my staff Owen" I snapped, this evening had took a turn and I was back to being angry at him. _Wow_ , how out of the ordinary, I never saw that coming.

  
"I'm just worried about you!" he said,  "And what about all the weight you've lost? When I hugged you then, I could practically feel your ribs pressing into my stomach..."

  
"Why is it any of your business what I do with my body?"

  
"You know that's not what I'm trying to say Emily, stop trying to be argumentative." he sighed, "I wouldn't give a shit if you lost weight of piled it on - its your body and its nothing to do with me. But when I know you losing weight is a result of you being so stressed that you physically lose the want to eat- then it becomes an issue."

  
"Owen I-"

  
" _No_ " he interrupted, "I want to help share some of the work load more, I don't want you to feel weighed down by all this pressure. You can put your trust in me, I won't fuck anything up." I stared at him with a puzzle expression, "You can trust me, can't you?"

  
Yes I obviously trusted him as a friend, but my work was different. I couldn't just put all my faith in him just because I trusted him as a friend, I needed to believe in him as a colleague, and I just didn't know if I could do that. I looked down at my hands in my lap, I then realised that I was practically half naked in my pyjamas so I desperately tried to pull my shirt down so my underwear wasn't on full display.

  
Owen noticed this panic and let out a chuckle, "I'm not looking, don't worry about it. You've already seen me indecent anyway" he smirked.

  
"Not just indecent! Half naked and glistening with water is a whole other frontier! If you had to see me like that you'd freeze too!" I laughed, trying to get the image of his sculpted torso out of my mind (but also half wanting to keep it engraved in my memory forever).

  
"I believe you, you're already breathtaking as it is" he laughed. I was used to him saying flirty things like this, but when he did it he usually included an eyebrow raise or a cheeky wink. This time it just seemed like a genuine compliment, it was almost as if I was talking to Lucy. For some reason I didn't like it, I preferred it when he was flirty and fun - that's what our friendship was based on, genuine Owen was like a whole other person, and it made me uneasy.

 

I sat for a moment quietly, playing with my hands in my lap. I pondered his proposition. I don't know why I had this intense fear of letting someone help me, it's not as if I was the greatest trainer to ever live! Perhaps the whole situation with taking on this new project and being adorned by Mr Masrani had gone to my head? Had I been walking around with my head up my own arse, thinking I was some kind of genius? No wonder Alyssa wanted to slap my half the time! Owen was a well-valued member of the Jurassic World team, I knew he was fully capable of following through with any orders I gave him. And if he thought giving Alyssa some more thorough training then I suppose it wouldn't be the worst idea in the world.

 

"Okay..." I said slowly, turning fully to face Owen, "I suppose handing over some power to you wouldn't be too difficult..."

 

"Do you usually have trouble relinquishing power?" He smirked, the cocky glint in his eye had returned, "You do strike me as a very dominant woman, someone who knows exactly what they want and what she wants other people to do." His hand slid onto my bare knee and he looked at me with his eyebrow raised.

 

"Oh for gods sake, Grady!" I laughed, pushing his hand away, "You're either cocky, flirty Raptor Boy, or genuine, kind dinosaur nerd - you can't be both, my mind can't take it!" I exclaimed, laughing again and folding my arms across my chest.

 

" _Well_ ," he said, standing up from the sofa but leaning down so his face was level with mine, "maybe I just like to keep you on your toes..." His voice was soft and sultry, the words flowed from his lips like caramel. He made his way towards the front door and opened it, pausing for a moment to say "See you tomorrow, _Boss._ " And with a wink, he left.

 

 

 


	9. Chapter Nine - Testing the waters

Things were going well. Too well for my liking. I felt as if everything could crumble around me any second, I had been happy for too long.

  
Owen and I had figured out a happy medium when it came to the workload, I was no longer afraid to delegate jobs to people, I could trust any one of the team at Indy's paddock as I knew that Ryan was a great supervisor and had taught them well during the times I had been with Rex. There was a well-established team and I was confident that they could attack any problem with ease. Alyssa had taken well to the extra training I had been giving her, she understood that while she had tonnes of knowledge about dinosaurs, she lacked the experience in teamwork and managing that I need from her. She had been to my house a few times to train and go through all the new protocols I had given her, and one night (when I had made the mistake of offering her a few drinks) she drunkenly spouted out a lengthy apology for all the times she had been a bitch. She explained that she thought I was just refusing to let her do things because I thought I was the best at everything, she didn't even stop to think that maybe she hadn't proved herself to be trustworthy yet. As it stood I had no issues with any member of staff, which was truly a rarity.

  
Owen and I had formed a sort of reputation around the park for being a package deal, we had been spending every single work day together, working collaboratively with all our dinosaurs, we had become a good team. If he needed to see the Raptors I would be there with him, using his training to aid in Indy's training since she was part Raptor. If I was tending to Rex he would be by my side, using my work to try and improve his own training techniques.

  
The constant flirting had continued of course and Alyssa always asked me if we were dating, to which I always laughed and said no. I was still seeing Michael on occasions and I had been on a few dates with people on the island that caught my attention. It never led to sex, I made it a point to not sleep with more than one person at a time, but I was genuinely happy to be meeting new people. In the past I had only ever gone on dates when I wanted a free meal and needed a new person to sleep with, but now I was just enjoying having social plans and getting to know new people.

  
After the conversation I had with Owen at my house when we made up, I started taking better care of myself. I was making an effort to put my health first, scheduling myself food breaks and trying to teach myself when to take a step back from work and de-stress. He had been inviting himself over to cook me dinner every night he had the chance, even though I had a fridge full of food and was a pretty decent cook - he insisted on coming over, making a mess, and half-assing his way through a recipe (which I always ended up fixing anyway). I liked his company though so I wasn't going to complain.

  
Today was Friday and I was sat in my office, Owen was helping wrangle a cow into the feeding cage with one of the maintenance guys. I had pulled my shoulder the other day lifting some equipment so I would be of no help to them - but with Owen's muscles I'm sure they wouldn't need my help anyways. Speaking of Owen's muscles... I had been looking at them _a lot_ recently. All his body really, and his stupid face. I wasn't going to deny that he was attractive, and in some other world I might have toyed with the idea of dating him, considering he was funny, kind and cared about the things I did. But for some reason I just couldn't bring myself to think about dating him with bursting out into laughter. I was happy having him as a flirty and goofy friend though, it was nice to have a guy friend who didn't want to fuck me because they thought I was an easy slut.

  
"Well that..." came a gasping voice from the doorway, "was fucking difficult!"

  
I turned my head to see Owen leaning against the doorframe taking deep breaths, he was covered in dirt from head to toe and his hair was sticking up in all directions. I burst out in hysterical laughter.

  
"What the FUCK?! " I exclaimed, I didn't expect to see him like that so it was a real shock, "What have... What have you been doing?" I said trying to catch my breath, my sides were hurting and tears were now falling from my eyes.

  
His eyebrows were knitted together in a scowl, and his arms were crossed tensely across his chest, "The fucking cow had us running around all over the pen, I fell over about ten times trying to grab it!" he said sternly, clearly not finding it funny. "Thanks a lot for your help, _bud!_ "

  
"Hey! I'm injured, you know that!" I said, trying to look as cute and innocent as I could. I rubbed my shoulder and pretended to wince in pain.

He squinted at me, "You're such a liar" he laughed, shaking his head and sitting down at his desk chair. Mr Masrani had noticed how close we had gotten and joked about how we were turning into two little kids, giggling and joking as if we were thick as thieves. I obviously rolled my eyes at the intern who had delivered it, and pushed it to one corner of the room in disgust, however Owen actually started to use it as I was sick of constantly telling him to not put his dirty boots up on the sofa ( _'F_ _or fucks sake, Owen! Put your shitty boot on that cushion one more time and I'm going to kick you in the crotch so hard, your dick will come out your mouth!'_ )

I chuckled and turned back to my computer, I had a few more emails and reports to send and then I was done for the day. Indy was being observed by a team of scientists that Masrani had sent over, to basically get an outsider opinion on the work I had done over the past few months. They didn't want to see any live training session though, so Ryan would be showing them some recorded footage. They assured me I didn't need to be present so I was happy to let Ryan run things until night shift came in, he was going to call me when they were finished to let me know how it went. Alyssa was busy getting everything prepped for the night shift, I was under strict instructions from Owen to just leave her to it and to not interrupt. I sent my last report to head quarters and looked at the time; 6:30 - not too bad for a Friday.

"Sooo..." I said, swivelling in my chair to face Owen, "What's for dinner?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

Owen bowed his head a little, and then cleared his throat. "Well actually..." he started, "I, er, I .... I have a... date sort of thing."

"What?" I chuckled, "Are you serious?" Owen hadn't had a date in months, I was starting to think he was finally sick of the dating scene on this Island. Apparently not.

"Yeah... is that alright?" he said, looking up at me as if he was a puppy that had done something wrong.

"Yeah of course," I said sharply, in a tone of voice that probably didn't sound convincing, "why would I care?" I forced a smile and turned back to my computer, randomly clicking on things to make myself look busy.

Owen shuffled in his chair, "Well we've been hanging out a lot recently... and I didn't know if it was going anywhere that's why I agreed to this date" he said, clearing his throat once more, "I can totally cancel-"

"Were you expecting us to go somewhere?!" I laughed again, it seemed to come out way too harsh and not as casual as I had meant it to be, "You and I were _never_ going to be an item, bud."

He looked at me with an expression I couldn't decipher, and then back down to the ground - half-heartedly smiling and shaking his head. "Well I... I don't know I-"

"Owen are you serious, me and you don't _date_ people!" I exclaimed, "Why the fuck would we date _each other_?"

"You're right," he snapped, his demeanor instantly changing, "I don't know why I ever thought _you_ might be capable of having a _real_ relationship!" He stood from his chair and pushed it back under the desk with force, "How stupid of me, right?!" He was smiling but his words came out with a venom and I couldn't pretend like they didn't hurt a little bit.

"I'm sorry, I just..." I started, nervously playing with my hands in my lap- it was my turn to look like the lost puppy, "I just didn't know you think about that stuff - do you... _like_ me or something?"

" _GOD_ NO!" he said with a cackle. Fuck. That one hurt. I could tell in his eyes that he was telling the truth (or he was just a good actor), it wasn't like he was hiding feelings. I was certain he had zero feelings towards me, now more than ever.

"Alright, _Jesus_!" I huffed, "Fine!"

"FINE!" he snapped.

"Well go on then!" I said sternly, standing from my seat and facing him with furrowed brows and crossed arms, "Go get ready for your date! What desperate bimbo have you got this time?" I knew it wasn't right to call this mystery girl a 'bimbo', she hadn't done anything wrong and she didn't deserve to be disrespected in such a way, but the words spilled from my mouth without a second thought and I couldn't stop myself.

"Why the fuck would you care?!" he spat, "She's better than Michael and all the other lads you've been fucking combined."

I stared at him in disgust, I hated mean-Owen. "OH JUST FUCK OFF THEN. Get out of my office!" I shouted, "And take your stupid fucking chair with you as well, it's not staying here!"

Owen stared at me, all the anger fell from his face and he looked shocked to say the least. He looked at the chair. That stupid chair was a symbol for the friendship we had made, asking him to take it was like saying I wanted nothing to do with his friendship. It was a real dick move and I regretted it instantly.

"Fine." He whispered, picking up the chair and carrying it through the doorway. His shoulders slumped and I knew I had taken it too far, but - ugh! He got me so riled up, he knew how to push my buttons and I couldn't stop myself from saying these awful things when he annoyed me like that. I thought I had decided that Owen and I were happy as friends, I guess not...

I sat at my desk for a few minutes, just listening to the sound of the clock ticking away and just thinking of what had happened. I was angry. And upset. And disappointed. And jealous. Sort of. Was I jealous? I wasn't sure, I wasn't good at deciphering emotions - especially my own. After sulking for about 15 minutes, I decided to pay a visit to the lab. It had been a while since I had seen Henry Wu after I took lead on Indy's training. All his assets were still frozen but Masrani and I had been talking about whether or not he could continue. Obviously the basic lab utilities were still running, as we always had visitors and VIP guests that took tours of the lab.

When I arrived at the lab it was pretty much empty, only a few people were left finishing off the work from the day. The lights were all dimmed and there was a nice amber glow coating everything - the laboratory was actually one of my favourite places to be, even if I didn't spend much time here. There was always such a calming aesthetic which, surprisingly, had not yet been ruined by all the arguments I had had in the past. I hung around for a while, expecting to see Wu at some point, but when he didn't appear I asked a lab tech. Apparently Wu had left urgently to see to some business in another paddock (I can't imagine the kind of 'urgent' business he would need to assist with, seeing as though he generally tended to the dinosaurs before they were even foetuses). But alas, I had no need to be at the lab if he wasn't here - but I took a look around anyway. I asked the lab tech to show me the projects they were working on at the minute (trying to see if she revealed any secret projects that I didn't know about), but luckily she told me how the projects were kept to a bare minimum, and that work was getting pretty monotonous without all the interesting DNA tests they usually did.

Happy with the information the young technician had told me, I set off back to my car and drove home. I pondered for a second about how Owen had got home, since we carpooled every morning and our argument had left him stranded without a ride home. But I quickly reminded myself that I shouldn't care because of how rude he was earlier. Incidentally, on the gravel track leading to lake, I saw him drive past me - he still wore a scowl but still looked quite good in his date-night outfit. I cursed myself for complimenting him, even if it was just in my head.

Once parked outside my house, I sat for a while - my arms resting on the steering wheel and my eyes watching the way my headlights illuminated and bounced off of the small ripples in the lake. I felt drained of all energy, as if I had been awake for a week. My brain was in shambles and I felt like my thoughts had been ransacked, I hadn't felt this way in a few weeks and it was an unwelcome feeling. I had gotten so used to arriving home with Owen by my side, we would be laughing at something stupid he had said that day, and we would fall into our routine of making dinner. The evening would be calm, we would chat and joke between long comfortable silences, nothing seemed forced, and I would marvel at how I had gotten so lucky to actually have a friend that wanted to hang out with me. I could talk to Lucy and be just as comfortable, but more often than not she would leave to spend time with her boyfriend, something was just _different_ with Owen.

The feeling I was experiencing was like nothing I had ever had before, and I sure as shit didn't like it. I left the car and toyed with the idea of texting Michael and asking him to come over, but I realised that I needed to stop relying on sex as a distraction to my problems - Michael deserved better than that, and so did I. I was going to do what normal people did, and sit on the sofa eating crap food. There was pizza leftover in my fridge but when I opened the box I realised the only slices in there were Owen's nasty olive-covered ones, I could pick them off and enjoy the other toppings but I didn't have the energy to do such a tedious task - and to be honest I didn't want to be reminded of Owen, even by a shitty slice of pizza. I decided on ice-cream instead and settled down to watch whatever film seemed good on Netflix. Before long I found myself drifting off and I decided to retreat to my bed, I looked at my phone and saw that it was only 11pm. I had missed a call from Alyssa and she had left a voicemail; I listened to it on speaker while I cleared my ice-cream away.

" _ **Hey Em, it's Alyssa. I'm only calling to ask how you were doing - shit you probably thought something had happened at the paddock, oops my bad- sorry. Anyways, erm... I heard you arguing with Owen while I was in the maintenance closet and well, I don't want to pry but- I mean, shit, it seemed pretty harsh. So I was just wondering, y'know if you ever needed to talk... I'm here if you need someone - wait I guess you have Lucy to talk to.. about that stuff, erm - whatever, just... if you ever need me- I can lend an ear. Okay? Soo, yeah! Bye!"**_

I couldn't help but smile listening to her message, she stumbled through her words as if leaving me a voicemail was the most daunting task she's ever had to do. I quickly typed out a message telling her how sweet she was, and I assured her I was alright. After that I traipsed up to my bed, turning off the lights as I went.

I had only been settled in my bed when I heard a knock at my front door. _'Please don't be Ryan bringing me some horrendous news about Indy'_ I thought to myself. I quickly ran downstairs praying that I didn't open the door to bad news; I turned the living room light on and unlocked the front door. I swung it open to reveal Owen.

"Owen?" I said, genuinely shocked to see him, I would have expected him to be the _last_ person at my door, "What are you doing here?"

He sighed, he looked just about as tired as I felt. "My date didn't go well." The way he spoke was strange, it was like he was telling me off somehow, I felt as if I was to blame. As he spoke he started to walk forward slowly, causing me to walk backwards myself.

" _Oh_!" I said, unsure of what else to say. Should I comfort him? Laugh at him? Who knows? "Why did it not go well?"

"Because..." he said through gritted teeth, "All I could think about was you. And that stupid desk chair. And that stupid fight. It's all just so stupid."

"So you're blaming me for your bad date?" I quizzed with a frown, "How does that make sense?"

"The date would have been fine, if I had never met you!" he spat, he was now fully past the doorway and he closed the door behind him.

I was completely confused, "What the fuck does that _mean_ , Owen?!"

"It means; I can't focus on any other girl except you, and I'm sick it!" he exclaimed, "Because I know, that you're not thinking about me in the same way!"

"Owen I-"

"No you don't have to make any excuse, don't lie to me - its fine." he sighed, running his hands through his hair and turning his back to me to make his way towards the door, "I just had to get it off my chest."

I didn't know what I was doing anymore, but I didn't want to stop and think it through.

I took a few steps and closed my palm around his left hand that gripping the door handle. He stopped his movements but didn't say anything, he just kept his head down and didn't move as I stood behind him. My right hand trailed up his back and settled on his shoulder, I pulled it gently so he would turn around. He moved his hand from the handle and let both his arms fall to his side, while my hands made their way from his arms, to his shoulders, and then to his face. I stood on my tiptoes and gently pulled his face closer to mine, it was at this point that he started to react- his hands moved to my waist swiftly and he pulled me closer so our bodies were flush against each other.

I pressed my lips against his, testing the waters. It was only for a second, but when we parted his eyes were closed still and he let out a deep, shaky breath. My thumb rubbed against the curve of his jaw line and I kissed him again. His lips were soft and they moved against mine perfectly, just as his hands fit comfortably around my waist and just as my arms felt as if they _belonged_ around his shoulders. His fingers dug into my skin slightly as the kiss became more heated, I pushed him back into the door with force before he spun me around so it was me pinned between him and the hard wood door. By this point his tongue had made it into my mouth and we were growing more desperate, exploring each-other's bodies; I pulled at his hair and his hands squeezed my arse.

My stomach felt as if it was in shreds, this wasn't butterflies - it was a full blown fucking tornado. I pulled his head back by his hair and started to kiss down his jaw and then down to his neck. I wanted to kiss every single inch of him, when I reached his neck he was making such delicious sounds that made me never want to stop; I wanted to stay like this forever. I pulled at his t-shirt, desperately trying to expose his collar bones and as much of his shoulders as I could. His moans grew louder until he grabbed my wrists and slammed them against the door above my head (it would've hurt if it hadn't been soooo fucking hot), and that's where he held me - one hand trapping me and the other trailing all over my skin. His fingers grazed under my t-shirt, toying with the waistband of my underwear. I felt as if he was drawing shapes in my skin with a hot fire poker, it was like nothing I had ever felt with a man before (well, certainly not this quickly). His teeth nipped at my lips and then made their way down to my neck, where he sucked and bit causing a stream of moans and curse words to fall from my mouth. He found a sweet spot just above my collarbone and, _my god_ , he abused it.

" _Owen... uh, I -"_ I tried to get words out but by mouth didn't want to cooperate, instead all it wanted to do was kiss him again. I struggled against that hand holding me in place, desperately trying to pull him back down to my level so I could kiss him more. However, I should have predicted that Owen wouldn't like disobedience, he pulled my arms down and spun me around so my face was pressed in the door and my hands were now being held behind my back.

"Now, now..." he whispered seductively into my ear, nipping at the lobe, "You should know better than that _, Miss. Wilson_." I could hear the smirk in his voice and it made me angry.

"You're an arsehole, Grady!" I said through gritted teeth, tilting my head to one side to give him better access to my neck once more.

"Am I though?" he smiled, he pushed his whole body against mine, making sure to draw my attention to the bulge now pressing into my arse. I couldn't help the moan that escaped my lips, " _See_... I think you might like me a bit more than that."

"Well then..." I smirked, "Maybe we should test this theory?"

He turned me around more gently this time and pushed the hair from my face, his eyebrow was raised in question. "Oh yeah? What did you have in mind?" He wiggled his eyebrows and I was reminded that this strong, burly man who quite literally _oozes_ sex, was simultaneously the biggest dork on this bloody island.

I let out a giggle and took his hand in mine, "C'mon Raptor Boy..." I said, leading him upstairs.

This should be fun...


	10. Chapter Ten - Aftermath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is long overdue but I sort of lost motivation to work on this story, I wasn't committed to the story line any more but I decided that it wasn't fair to just forget about it. 
> 
> So this is a shorter chapter but I promise more chapters are in the works and will be uploaded soon!

I’d felt dissatisfied after sex before, plenty of times. It was difficult to find men on this island that were capable of making a woman feel good and who could last more than five minutes. Good sexual partners were a rarity, and at times I thought that, not unlike my dinosaur friends, they might be extinct. A few more years of dissatisfying sex might lead me to the lab to whip up my own little genetically modified boy toy. Granted dinosaurs were no longer extinct but that was purely down to science and modern technology, which now that I think about it, is pretty much the same as how men will soon be replaced by vibrators and other wonderful sex toys. _Ah, science._

Owen Grady, however, didn’t have any of those issues, not in the slightest. The sex was incredible, mind-blowing even. He kissed all the right places, his hands seemed to trace my body like they were following a treasure map, he kept the right paces and rhythms, pulled me into all the right positions, and for the first time in forever I was completely and utterly satisfied.

However, I was disappointed in myself. I had promised myself that I wouldn’t become one of Owen Grady’s conquests, I wasn’t going to let myself be drawn in by his good looks and dorky charm. I never wanted to indulge myself in Owen Grady, this was never part of my plan. I felt as if I had committed a crime, and as lay next to his sleeping form I felt _guilty_. Looking at him felt like another offence, thinking about him and what we just did felt illegal. Anything to do with him seemed tainted now, I couldn’t even look at his clothes crumpled on my floor without feeling a twinge of discomfort.

But as much as it hurt to do so, I couldn’t help but turn and look at him. His torso was exposed and glowing in the moonlight, still shining with sweat and red in areas with love bites and scratches. One arm was tucked behind his head and the other rested on his stomach. His hair was slightly dishevelled, parts were still slicked to his forehead. Redness surrounded his lips which were plump from all the kissing and lip biting. I took in the sight of him. How many other girls had seen him like this? It almost didn’t seem fair for someone to look this attractive while asleep, and I couldn’t help but think about how I wanted to keep this sight for myself, no other woman should have the privilege of seeing him like this – I wanted to keep him all for myself.

Realising how stupid and selfish this sounded, I sighed and rubbed my hands over my face. I’m sure I looked like a hot mess, there was no way I looked as angelic as he did. I turned to my nightstand to grab my phone but quickly realised that I was on the wrong side of the bed. _That bastard_ , no one ever sleeps on that side of the bed except me, I must have been too caught up in everything to realise what side of the bed I was on. Admittedly there were times I wasn’t even sure which direction I was facing or even where I was, _‘Is this the bedroom or the living room? I can’t tell upside-down but, ugh fuck - it doesn’t matter’._

I slid out of the bed and found my shirt from earlier slung across my dresser, I pulled it on along with a clean pair of underwear I found from the pile of washed clothes I needed to put away. I crept to the nightstand and unplugged my phone from its charger, I was careful not to wake Owen, I didn’t really feel like talking to him right now- there was too much on my mind. With my phone in my hand I slowly made my way downstairs and collapsed onto my sofa. Finally, I looked at my phone and saw that it was 3:05am, and I was wide awake. There were no messages for me to read so I pulled up YouTube and watched some videos for a while. I tried to focus on the content I was watching but my mind just kept replaying everything that had happened with Owen and I, it all played out like a movie in my head – him showing up at my door, me being pinned to the door, leading him upstairs, pushing him onto the bed and pouncing on him like he was a gazelle and I was a lioness, and – ughhhh… It was simultaneously the best and worst thing to happen to me this month. Yes, he was hot…and kind… and funny… and _basically_ perfect, but at the same time he was my _friend_ , my _colleague_ , my fellow island-slut.

Deciding to ignore these feelings, I walked to the kitchen and grabbed a half-empty bottle of tequila from my fridge. I quickly downed some hefty gulps, ignoring the burning sensation igniting my throat and travelling down my chest. The bottle was nearly empty so I disregarded my better judgement and finished it off without a second thought. I walked to my front door and slid on a random pair of trainers I had left there and made my way outside to dispose of the bottle into my glass recycling bin. The air was warm, as it typically was in the night, but a subtle breeze rustled the trees and threatened to raise goose bumps on my skin. I always enjoyed the nights on this island, the sky and the moon always looked so different compared to when I would stare at them at home, even though they were the same. It was hard to explain but everything just seemed more beautiful here – I don’t know if it was the warmth or the fact that the island seemed like a magical place to me. The moon cast a different glow on the ground, the trees rustled more beautifully, as if I were in a movie. As I sat on my porch steps I felt the effects of the tequila, I wasn’t shit-faced drunk or anything but I definitely felt myself start to warm up and my eyes seemed a little bit heavier.

I just wanted to stay like this forever, the warmth radiating through my body, the moon dancing over the ripples in the lake, I felt at peace despite the intense confusion my heart was battling. I didn’t want to think about Owen or our relationship. I just wanted to stay here, soaking up the atmosphere, willing the stars to carry me up into the night sky, I was done with being on the earth. It only ever brought sadness and confusion, I’d rather just be floating amongst the galaxies, where I would never have to talk to anyone again. But the universe would never be as kind as that…

Instead I was treated to the sound of the front door opening and closing, and to the sound of footsteps leading up to me, and to the sight of Owen in my peripherals sitting down next to me on the porch step. I sighed and kept my eyes forward, not allowing myself to look at him – I had seen way too much of him already.

“Hey…” he said quietly, almost in a whisper, the night was so quiet I think his normal voice would have seemed like a yell.

I took a gulp and replied with an equally quiet, “Hey”. I could see him staring at me now from the corner of my eye, but I wouldn’t allow my gaze to meet his.

“What are you doing out here? Aren’t you cold?”

“Couldn’t sleep,” I stated simply, “why are you here?”

“I heard a loud bang outside but when I looked outside I realised it was you closing the lid on the bin.”

“Shit. Sorry, I guess I forgot to be quiet,” I said, “sorry I woke you up.” I actually willed myself to look at him as not to seem too rude. He was smiling at me, still looking as delicious as he did 20 minutes ago.

“That’s alright,” he said kindly, “what was so important that needed to be disposed of at half 3 in the morning?” he chuckled. I let out a small laugh with him, “You weren’t getting rid of a dead body, were you? A murder weapon?”

“No, no, nothing like that.” I smiled.

“Then what was it?”

I let out a shaky breath and swallowed thickly, “It was an empty bottle of tequila…” I kept my eyes to the ground, I could practically feel his stare burning holes into my skin.

“What?” he laughed, “Did you drink it or was it old? Why did you need to throw it out in the middle of the night?” I could hear the smile in his voice but he was clearly confused.

“I just… I came downstairs and finished of the bottle,” I explained, “and I felt like sitting outside for a while since I couldn’t sleep, that’s all.”

He let out a small noise of acknowledgement before clearing his throat. “Were you, um… were you regretting what happened?”

I looked up at him, his eyes were soft but I could see him clenching his jaw like he was nervous. “I don’t know…” I admitted, “I don’t know what I think about it right now.”

“You’re telling me you didn’t enjoy it? Because I definitely did.” He stated.

“Of course I did!” I said, there was no denying that it was great sex, there was no point in trying to lie to him – he was there for fuck sake, he was a first-hand witness to me enjoying myself. “I just can’t help but feel like we just made a huge mistake, and that really scares me Owen. I don’t want to lose you as a friend…”

He didn’t reply, we simply sat in silence, listening to the rustling of the leaves and the sounds of the insects. It had been years since I had felt so conflicted about my feelings for another human being, and my solution last time was to accept a job in another country and leave them and my feelings behind. Sadly I couldn’t exactly do the same here, I loved working here – I couldn’t just pack up my life after I had spent so long getting myself settled here.

“Emily what do you see me as?”

“You’re my friend Owen-”

“Are you attracted to me?”

“Well of course I am, why do you think I had sex with you?”

“You had sex with me just because you’re attracted to me?”

“No that’s not what I meant-”

“Isn’t it?” he sighed, looking at me with hurt in his eyes.

“Well fine, why did you have sex with me then? Are you _just_ attracted to me or was it more than that?”

“I can’t get you out of my mind, Emily. You are all I think about-”

“That doesn’t mean you _like_ me, that means we spend upwards of 12 hours a day with each other and you don’t get out enough to see other people!” I said harshly.

“So you’re telling me that you have no desire to even consider the possibility of us maybe being more than friends?” he snapped, he was glaring at me now with a deep frown on his face.

“That’s not what I’m saying, Owen!” I snarled, “You’re putting words in my mouth! I don’t know how I feel-”

“Well don’t you think you should have thought about it a bit more before you decided to climb into bed with me?!” he almost shouted, standing up from the porch step and throwing his arms up in exasperation.

“ _Hey!_ ” I shouted, jumping up from the step as well and pointing my finger at him accusingly, “ _You_ were the one that showed up at _my_ front door, complaining about how difficult I was making life for you, not the other way around!” I was gesturing wildly and I could tell the tequila was to blame, it was causing me to be a lot more vicious than usual, “So don’t you blame this mess on me!”

“So I’m right then? You think this is a mess, you think you made a mistake?” He shouted, “If you knew you didn’t like me then why did you not send me away, why did you _kiss_ _me_ when I tried to leave?!”

“I DON’T KNOW ALRIGHT?!” I shouted once more, “Why did you have to show up in the first place, Owen?!”

“BECAUSE I THOUGHT I LIKED YOU! _Clearly_ I was wrong!”

We stared at each other for a few seconds, my chest was heaving, my heart was beating so hard I could feel my pulse in my temples. My throat was dry and the alcohol mixed with the emotion made me feel like I might pass out. I stormed past Owen into the house, I poured myself a glass of water and downed the whole thing so fast I almost choked. But it didn’t help any, my heart was still racing, even faster now. I could faintly see Owen’s silhouette through the door frame but not for long – my vision blurred slightly and I thought I was crying. I wasn’t.

I struggled to breathe. What was once heavy pants quickly turned into shallow gasps for oxygen, I felt like I was suffocating.

My vision blurred again and this time it went black completely.

“ _Emily_?”

I struggled to stand and stumbled into the dining table and chairs. I tried to catch myself but it was too late.

I felt the air rush past my ears as I collapsed and I heard Owen shout my name.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FYI - This was always going to be a slow burn because I believe that a complicated and difficult relationship ismore realistic, two people don't just declare their love for each other and then immediately begin to date and live happily ever after. Relationships are tricky and messy and I wanted that to be clear in this story, not everything works out perfectly.  
> Any love scenes in the future will be actually described and not just brushed over, I feel how two characters treat each other during intimate encounters is really important and I definitely want to cover that in the future - just thought I would mention it for anyone who was left dissatisfied with how the sex 'scene' played out.


	11. Chapter Eleven - Arguments and emergency rooms

I was suddenly aware of every inch of my body, in a bizarre goose-bumps-mixed-with-pins-and-needles way. I felt hyperaware of every feeling in my body – a numb pulsing feeling in my right elbow, a dull ache in my left knee, a severe red-hot pain on the side of my head, two hands holding me by my shoulders.  I was laid on my back as far as I was aware, my vision came back to me as I blinked my dry eyes and I saw that it was Owen holding me and staring down at me. Of course it was him, I had probably only been out for a minute or so.

“Emily holy fuck! Are you okay?” he said quickly, I could tell he was worried by the way his eyes darted around my face and how wide they were. When I didn’t answer he spoke again, “I’m going to get something for your head – you’re bleeding. Don’t move!” He rushed off to my kitchen to find something – oh that’s nice just leave me collapsed on the floor, I haven’t even told you I’m okay yet!

I didn’t know why I had fainted, probably just fatigue mixed with too many feelings – is that a legitimate reason? I hoped so. I didn’t have to time or energy to be ill right now, not with all the stuff going on. Though on the other hand an excuse to be bed-ridden for a few weeks might be a saving grace. I tried to push myself up onto my elbows, I looked around and saw my shattered glass of water on the floor and the dining chair I had tried to hold onto fallen on its side. I fought through the intense pain in my head whenever I moved and managed to get myself on my feet. I picked up the chair and then sat on it, resting my head in my hands trying to fight the urge to throw-up as I heard Owen running the tap in the kitchen.

“Hey, hey, be careful” said Owen softly, passing me a damp cloth to hold to my head. I held it to where the pain on my head was, assuming I had a gash from the feeling on warm liquid running down the side of my cheek.

“Thanks” I muttered, still looking at the table. I saw Owen nod his head in my peripheral vision before turning his attention to the floor of broken glass.

“You got a brush and dustpan?” he asked, attempting to sweep some of the bigger shards into a pile with his foot.

“Cupboard under the sink,” I said, “need a hand?” I began to stand from the chair but I was soon stopped.

“NO! Are you stupid?” he yelled, “You stay where you are!”

“Fine,” I sat back down as instructed, “fucking hell” I added in whisper. I could understand Owen’s concern and his anger, I’m pretty sure that he was ready to storm out during out fight but now he’s sort of stuck with me for a bit longer.

As I held the cloth to my head I examined my elbow for any signs of injury. It just looked red, I would probably just have a lovely bruise in a day or so. I looked down at my knee and realised that I was still just in a t-shirt and underwear, but then quickly decided that maintaining a level of modesty was the last of my problems. I saw a small cut on my thigh from where I had fallen on a small piece of glass, and from the looks of it my right knee was swollen and red. Yay.

Owen finished sweeping up the glass and took the dustpan outside to pour it into my dustbin. I stood up from the chair slowly as soon as he left and hobbled over to the sink to get a glass of water. As turned the tap off and started to sip out of the glass Owen returned an immediately gave me _that_ look. The look that lets me know I’m going to get told off.

“The fuck are you doing?!” he snapped, storming back over to me, “Do you not realise that you’re not well, or do you just not give a fuck?!”

“I just wanted a drink.” He was now stood about a foot away from me, still glaring. “I didn’t want to bother you” I added quietly.

His expression softened and he sighed, “I just… I don’t mind. I just don’t want you to hurt yourself again.”

“I’m sorry…” I said.

He sighed again, “How’s your head?” He reached up slowly and took the damp, bloodied, cloth from my head. From the look on his face I could tell it wasn’t that great.

“It fucking kills.” I walked over to my living room and looked in the mirror hung on the wall, “HOLY SHIT!” My temple had a 2-inch gash that went into my hairline. It had swelled to the size of an apple and I could already see some bruising, I also had blood smeared all over my face. “I’m fucking hideous!”

“It’s not that bad…” Owen said with a grimace as he walked over to me. “We’ll just get you a floppy hat or something from the gift shop” he said with a smile.

I looked at him in the reflection of the mirror and let out a small chuckle. “I guess the glass could’ve cut my eye and I might’ve been blind, I got lucky with this.”

“That’s true, you might need some stiches though – it’s not flowing with blood, but it doesn’t look like the bleeding will be stopping anytime soon, just keep the pressure on there.” He passed me the cloth again and I pressed it back to my head, “How are you feeling by the way?”

“I don’t feel sick anymore, my head fucking kills though, my knee is aching and so is my elbow, and I have a cut in my leg that I can feel my heartbeat in.”

“Oh, shit I didn’t even notice your leg!” He hurried back to the kitchen, “Come here let me see, sit down.”

I did as I was told and he crouched in front of me to inspect the cut. The cut on my leg wasn’t that deep, it was relatively small in comparison to the gash on my head. “Does it feel like there is any glass in there?” Owen asked.

“No, I don’t think so, it just hurts a bit.”

“Have you got a first aid kit?” He looked around my kitchen again, but opened the cupboard that it was in before I could answer. He took out some cleaning wipes and a large plaster.

“I’m going to clean this up a little bit for now, and you just keep pressure on your head until we get to the medical centre.”

“Is it really that serious, Owen?” I laughed but by the look on his face I could tell he didn’t think it was a laughing matter.

“Yes Emily, for fucks sake why do you always want to downplay your problems. You are in fucking pain and have a gash on you head – is that not fuCKING SERIOUS TO YOU? YOU ARE ALLOWED TO BE IN TROUBLE, YOU DON’T HAVE TO PRETEND ALL THE TIME!”

“Fucking hell alright!” I didn’t want to shout back because I knew he was right.

“Now will you let me help you?!” he snarled back. I nodded and he continued to patch me up, “I’m going to call ahead so they know we are coming, I doubt they’ll be super busy at this time, but I can’t hurt to prepare them.”

I nodded again and he stood up and took off upstairs. As much as I wanted to get up and do all this myself, I didn’t want another telling off from Owen. I had already pissed him off enough tonight, as confusing as the whole situation was and as muddled as my feelings were, I knew he didn’t deserve my disobedience. I knew I could be difficult, I’m not a moron. But when you are on your own for so long with family or many friends, you forget what it is like to have someone take care of you. A helping hand can be so jarring to someone so unaccustomed to care, that more often than not it comes across as a punch to the chest. Owen was only trying to help and I had to remind myself that he easily could have just left me during our fight and I might still have been lying on the floor unconscious.

He soon returned with a pair of leggings and a jacket, “Here, put these on.” He handed them to me and I put down my damp cloth to get dressed. As I shimmied the leggings on over my cut thigh I felt the cloth back on my head, he was holding it there to stop the bleeding as I got dressed. I smiled and looked up at him, however he was looking in the opposite direction, I wondered if he was trying to make me more comfortable by not eyeing me up – either that or he wanted to avoid looking at me in any capacity after our argument. He probably regretted the whole evening, and looking at my half naked body would just be a reminder of everything that happened.

Once I was dressed I raised my hand to where his was on my temple and he roughly pushed the cloth back into my hand. “Alright. Let’s go then” he snapped. I grabbed my phone off of the kitchen table before following him out of my house, I made sure I grabbed my keys before leaving and locked the front door behind me. Owen was already at his truck, patiently waiting for me at the passenger’s side, the gesture is usually sweet but the bitter look on his face told me it wasn’t something he was happy about doing. I muttered a quick thanks before climbing in and he slammed the door closed as soon as I was seated.

The drive to the medical centre was silent, neither one of us wanting to speak. I pulled out my phone and realised it was 4:25am, I didn’t realise that much time had passed everything had gone so quickly. On a normal Saturday I would be waking up in half an hour to see to Indy and Rex. I tended to the paddocks until 10am to give Alyssa a chance to lie in, and then she would usually see to the paddocks until closing time so I could have a day off. I feared I wouldn’t be able to make it in time and I didn’t want to leave Indy and Rex hungry for too long. I knew there wouldn’t be anyone in my contacts that would be awake at this time, so I decided to wait until we got to the medical centre – if it was really busy there I would have to wake someone up but if it was quiet I might be able to make it myself.

It was nearing 5am when we pulled up to the medical centre and luckily for me it looked quiet. Owen parked and got out, I opened my own door and jumped out still holding the cloth to my temple (I’m certain that it’s not really doing anything at this point, and the constant pressure is just serving to give me even more of a headache).

“Hey, I was going to help you out” Owen said as he appeared at my side, “are you okay?”

“I’ve been sat in the car for half an hour Owen, nothing exciting or life-threatening has happened.” I said rolling my eyes. He let out a sigh and began to walk up to the building - I instantly regretted my attitude. “Hey-” I quickly took a few steps to catch up with him and I put my hand on his shoulder (mainly for comfort but also to stable myself), “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I’m being so shitty – just stressed I guess. Thank you for all you help, Owen, I really appreciate it.” He just stared at me with a blank expression as I smiled at him, this might be a good representation of our relationship now. Him staring blankly at me, no emotion or care, while I desperately try to be nice to fix all my shitty behaviour – I feared I may have done too much damage at this point.

Owen still didn’t say anything, so I took my arm off of him and walked up to the building myself, I opened the door and held it open for him but he was still stood outside. I didn’t have time for this, I had to be back in time for Rex and Indy. I walked up to the front desk and no one was there, “Hello?”, soon enough a female receptionist came to the desk.

“Hiya sweetie, oh gosh are you okay?” An expression which started as kind and welcoming soon turned to thinly veiled disgust at she saw my bloodied face.

“I’ve been better I’m not going to lie” I said with a chuckle while leaning against the counter, I took the cloth away from my head and her eyes widened.

“I’ll get the doctor straight away, do you mind filling out these forms for me sweetie?” she asked, handing me some paperwork.

“Yes of course, I’ve also got a cut on my thigh as well but I don’t think that is as bad.”

“No problem, write down all the injuries you are aware of and the doctor will take care of them.” She said with a sweet smile before typing away on her computer.

I heard the door open and Owen soon appeared at my side, I didn’t acknowledge him and just continued to fill in my paperwork.

“Hey so I just called Barry, he is at the raptor enclosure but he is going to see to Indy as soon as some more morning staff get to the paddock. I tried to get hold of Alyssa, but she isn’t picking up-”

“Yeah she likes to have a lie in on Saturday mornings. But I think I’ll be done here in time to go see Rex and Indy-”

“Look.” He interrupted fiercely, “I know you want to do it all, but you can’t, Emily! You are injured, you can’t work like you usually do, you can’t split your head open and then expect to go back to working at 110 miles per hour each day.”

“Well, Owen,” I placed my pen down and passed the paperwork to the receptionist, “I appreciate your concern but in case you haven’t noticed- it’s my fucking job. And I am not going to miss anything because of a clumsy little accident.”

“It wasn’t an accident!” he shouted, I was well aware of the receptionist staring at us, “You fucking fainted!!”

“Regardless of that, I have a job to do-”

“Miss Wilson, forgive me but I couldn’t help but overhear…” the receptionist interrupted, “You have sustained a pretty serious injury, and by the sounds of it you are in no state to go back to work straight away if what Mr Grady here is saying is true.”

“You don’t understand, those dinosaurs are the only things I care about. I am not about to put them in the hands of someone else while I recover from a bump to the head.” I snapped.

The receptionist smiled once more and I heard Owen sigh next to me. “Miss Wilson, you have a reputation on this island-”

“Oh, you don’t have to tell me, I am well-aware.”

“You have a reputation for being a workaholic, most staff here are in awe of you. But I suppose they don’t get to see the stress that you deal with, you try and make it look so easy. It is very clear you love your animals, but don’t let this job be the death of you.”

I stared at her not really knowing what to say, I knew she was sort of right, but I was angry and didn’t want to take it out on her because I knew I would regret it. It seems like I regret most of the things I say these days.

“She’s right” Owen added, “I think it’s time you took a break from working. I am more than capable of seeing to Indy and Rex-”

“ _Excuse me_?! If anyone will be looking after Rex it will be Alyssa! I know you think you’re top dog or whatever, but that doesn’t give you free rule over any dinosaur you want, I have my own staff that can see to any dinosaur just as good as you can, if not better!”

“Ha-ha good one,” he started sarcastically, “but I can see to them-”

“You stick to your raptors if you know what is good for you” I snapped, I could feel my heart beating faster than ever in my cut. My blood was practically boiling, and I felt as if my head might explode. “Don’t forget who Masrani made lead on this. It was me, not you.” I was harsh, but I didn’t care at this point, my cheeks were heating and the urge to throw up was coming back, if I didn’t calm down I feared I might pass out again.

“Good morning!” chirped a male doctor who had appeared from a door to the right of us. “Miss Wilson if you would like to follow me.” He had got here in the nick of time, if Owen and I had stood arguing for any longer I might have exploded out of anger.

I made my way towards the doctor, “Thank you for bringing me here, Owen. Go see to the raptors, I can find my own way home.”

He looked confused and hurt, “But I-”

“I can manage on my own, go and see to your raptors.” I spoke slowly. After a few seconds of staring at me blankly he sighed in exasperation and stormed out of the building.

“Shall we?” I said to the doctor and he lead me to an examination room.

‘What a night’ I thought to myself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo it'd be nice to have some feedback so I know what you guys think about the story so far. Pretty please??


	12. Chapter Twelve - Patching up

It was around 7am when I was released from the medical centre, I had argued profusely with the doctor who wanted to keep me in all day just in case I had any more ‘episodes’ as he called them. My head was freshly bandaged as was my thigh, I had been given painkillers to take, I didn’t really take much notice to them and nor did I heed the ‘slow down and get some rest’ lecture he gave me. Honestly all I wanted to do was see my girls, they were now my sole reason for living at this point. I was no longer going to concern myself with asshole trainers who think they are better than me and don’t accept any of my apologies. I will not take any shit from anyone, including Alyssa and Hoskins, fuck it, add Claire Dearing to that list, and, why not, lets throw Masrani in too. No one was going to stand between me and my dinosaurs.

However, as good as this plan was, I was still left with the small task of getting home. I was sort of stranded here at the medical centre, Isla Nublar didn’t exactly have Uber. I refused to call Owen, or Michael or any other one-night-stand I had on this island. So, I set off on the hour walk home…

Eventually I made it home, it had taken longer that expected as I had to keep stopping to rest my leg. Upon arriving at my home, I was happy to realise that Owen had cleaned up most of the glass and blood from last night, allowing me to collapse onto the sofa in exhaustion. It was only really in moments like this that I allowed myself to give in to the tiredness and stress encumbering me. Before I knew it, I was drifting to sleep.

I woke up startled having realised I was allowing myself to relax when Grady was probably at my enclosure bossing everyone around like he owned the place. The thought made me shudder, and so I got up and made my way upstairs as best I could with a bandaged leg. I glanced at the clock on my nightstand and saw it was almost noon, it had wasted too much of the day. Looking in the mirror on my dresser I fully took in my appearance. My head was bandaged, and my eye was beginning to bruise from where I had landed on my face. Thankfully the doctor had cleaned to blood from my face. What I wanted more than anything was to take a nice hot shower and rinse away all my ailments but getting my gauze wet was something the doctor had told me to avoid whenever possible, so I decided to just freshen myself up with some deodorant and brush my teeth to get rid of the lingering Tequila taste. I changed clothes and quickly made it downstairs to grab my car keys and phone.

The drive to the paddock was relatively easy, technically I should not be operating any heavy machinery at the minute, but I chose to ignore that for now. Rex’s paddock was first on my route, despite the fact Alyssa had made significant progress and knew full well how to run the paddock on her own, it didn’t stop me worrying constantly. No matter how many times she proved herself I could never escape the nagging feeling in the back of my mind telling me something was doomed to fail sooner rather than later. Stepping out of my car I limped to the entry door and entered the pass code, once I got my stride going it was easier to walk without hobbling, which was good because I wanted to look as not-injured and fit-for-work as possible. I walked into the office and found it to be empty, I let out a small sigh of relief and walked to the desk to look at the stats for the night as well as the e-mails I had missed. Part of me was pleased with seeing that nothing had gone to shit, but also part of me was disappointed, it was hard to admit how replaceable you were. It was like being slapped in the face by reality, nothing I did here was really that special – I had just got proof of how anyone could do the same as what I did.

I don’t know what it was, maybe stress, maybe lack of sleep, maybe just a yummy cocktail of anxiety and depression, but felt my eyes prickle with tears and my lips began to do that shitty thing where they pull themselves downwards and as much as you try to fight them you still end up looking like a baby with a quivering lip. A few tears rolled onto my cheeks and I immediately wiped them away, trying to hide the evidence of my weakness. For so long I had walked around bossing everyone around, threatening Hoskins and Wu, as if I was some kind of Dinosaur whisperer, when _clearly_ , I was no better at running the paddock as Alyssa and Owen were. Fucking hell I bet dopey Jeremy from the maintenance team could do my job better than me!

For so long I thought Rex and I had some kind of special bond. For fucks sake she was my only friend for the first few months I worked here, but apparently, she listens to anyone – to her I’m just another person who feeds her. I turned to the metal bars and looked for Rex in her paddock, and I realised that Alyssa would be leading the noon feeding show still. Sure enough there was Rexxy, poised beautifully, chest out, head up, waiting patiently for Alyssa to release a goat for her. I watched the crowds of people pressed up against the glass, they were in complete awe of Rex, although I wasn’t entirely sure how much of that was admiration for Alyssa. I continued crying, well no – not so much crying, per say. The tears were rolling down my cheeks, and I felt the sadness, but I stood in silence, contemplating how unimportant I was to this park, how I was living a lie. The tears kept coming and the sadness clenched at my chest, but no emotion was showing on my face, just blankness.

I didn’t even register the sound of the office door opening and the “WHAT THE FUCK?!” that came shortly afterwards. It was Owen. Of course, it was Owen. He had been witness to all my worst moments these past few months, all out-bursts, nose-breaking’s, and now – my pathetic tears.

“Emily, what the fuck are you doing here?” he asked sternly, his footsteps getting closer to me until I left his hand on my shoulder, he began to turn me around so I was facing him, “You should be at home-”. He paused as he took in my tear-ridden face, my blank stare, my _weakness_. “ _Emily_ …” he said softly.

I looked into his eyes, he looked confused and… sad? I swallowed thickly and said nothing, I couldn’t say anything if I wanted to. Words evaded me, the only thing running through my mind was how useless I was. All I did was cause trouble, I broke nose’s and threatened people because I thought I knew better than everyone. All I did here was cause friction, friction with Owen, with Alyssa, even Michael had stopped returning my calls! I guess I was too messed up to even be his fuck-buddy anymore. All this new information was hitting me like a tonne of bricks and my sleep-deprived brain was too overloaded to let any of these feelings out.

“Emily, sweetie…” Owen whispered, he was now holding me by my shoulders, “Are you okay?”

Was I okay? I didn’t know anymore. I didn’t know who I was. I wasn’t a good trainer, I certainly wasn’t a good friend, I wasn’t a good _person_ , period.

Owen’s hand moved up to my jaw and he began wiping some of the tears from my cheeks. The contact seemed foreign to me and I bowed my head down, almost in shame of the state I was in. The minute my head dropped Owen pulled me into a hug, his arms enveloped my small frame and I felt safe and hidden in his chest, safe enough for me to let out a few sobs.

“Owen…” I let out finally, muffled by his shirt, “all I do – all I do is hurt people.”

“Shhh, sweetie. It’s okay,” he stroked my hair as I soaked his shirt with tears, “it’s okay, it’s okay” he repeated over and over. But it wasn’t okay. The only reason he was being nice to me was because I was sad. He was ready to walk in here and shout at me, because that’s what I deserved. He deserved to be annoyed at me, all I had done up until now was push him away. All we seemed to do was push each other away, and I don’t know why.

I wasn’t sure how long we stayed like that, it could have been five minutes, it could have been an hour. When I finally pulled myself away from his grasp his was staring down at me with kind eyes. I had made a real mess of his shirt, the entire front of it was soaking wet. I let out a small chuckle and wiped at the wet patch, it wasn’t a real laugh – I just felt like I had to do something to break the tension. However, I don’t think Owen bought it for one second, as he still stared down at me with a burning intensity.

“Phew,” I sniffed and wiped at my eyes, trying to compose myself, “sorry, Owen. I don’t know what came over me.” I said with another chuckle. I pulled the collar of my t-shirt up and wiped my face with it.

“C’mon Emily, you know that’s a lie,” he said, “are you really going to act like that wasn’t something to talk about?” His tone was kind but I could hear the exasperation behind it, I knew he was doing his best not to shout at me – and I didn’t blame him. We had not left things on good terms, and I’m sure he was dying to say ‘I told you so’, after all he was always the first to say I was working too much and taking on too much responsibility. I dread to think what his reaction would be if he found out I walked an hour journey home on an injured leg, and then drove my jeep all the way here despite the Doctor’s orders.

“I don’t know Owen,” I sighed, “I must have just been overwhelmed with emotions after seeing Rex-”

“Bullshit.”

“Pardon?”

“That’s bullshit!” He ran his fingers through his hair and took a seat on the small sofa in the corner of the office, “Just talk to me. _Please_.”

I shrugged nonchalantly, “I don’t know what to tell you.” I knew I was lying but all these emotions were so new to me, I didn’t know how to talk about them to him without fully understanding them myself.

“Emily, _please_!” he said again, almost pleading. When I looked at him properly his eyes were watery, and his brows were kitted together in a frown.

“ _Owen,_ ” my voice caught in my throat, “I don’t know what to say…” I folded my arms together and played with the hem of my shirt sleeve just to give me something to do, I couldn’t bear the silence and the awkwardness.

Owen shook his head and looked down at his hands in his lap. Out the corner of my eye I thought I saw his mouth open to speak but no sound ever came out. I couldn’t take this any longer, I wanted to go to see Indy -even if it was just to talk to Ryan and have a normal interaction where I didn’t feel like I was being interrogated.

I took a step towards Owen, “I’m sorry about your shirt, and I’m sorry you had to see that. If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to-” I decided to lie, “I’m going home.” He shook his head and smirked, but never said anything, so I continued. “Thankyou, Owen.” I placed my hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze, before making my way towards the door.

Suddenly the door swung open as I reached for the handle and I jumped back. Owen’s head snapped up at Alyssa whose stride came to a stop as she saw me. “Emily!? Oh my god!” she let out in surprise, “How are you?” Before I could get out a word in response she spoke again, “When Owen called me I was so worried, I didn’t want to call just in case you got annoyed with all the people checking up on you.” She said this with a laugh, and I laughed too – because no one had tried to contact me, no one had cared. This thought passed through my mind, but I quickly realised the more plausible explanation, which was that no one had called me because they knew I’d be a bitch and demand that everyone stopped thinking I was fragile and that I couldn’t handle myself.

Alyssa placed her microphone on the desk as she had just finished up the noon showing, and then she turned back to me, “I’m surprised you’re allowed to work so soon-”

“She’s not,” Owen snapped, “She should be at home, _resting_.” He stood from the couch and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at him.

“Oh,” Alyssa said, sensing the hostility between Owen and I, “soo – what are you doing here?”

“Don’t worry about it, Alyssa.” I said through gritted teeth, not looking at her, but instead glaring at Owen as he glared at me with equal intensity.

“ _Okay_ …” she said with a nervous laugh, “I’m going to put my mic back in the equipment locker. I’ll be right back” she said quickly, though I had a funny feeling she wouldn’t be coming back any time soon.

As the office door closed Owen let out a sigh, “I can’t believe you’re still pretending to be okay!” He walked over to the desk and leant against the desk chair.

“Owen, I’m fine!”

“You’re such a fucking liar!” he shouted, picking the chair up and slamming it back down in anger. “I want to help you, you FUCKING moron!”

I shook my head and tried to maintain my composure, even though his attitude was scaring me. When I didn’t give a verbal response he kicked the chair again and I nearly jumped out of my skin. When he turned back to me my eyes were wide and I’m sure I looked like frightened little field mouse. Out of all the emotions Owen had made me feel, I never thought that fear would be one of them. This was a whole new side to him and I didn’t like it one bit.

“I’m sorry,” he sighed, “I just hate seeing you run yourself into the ground,” He really looked upset, and I hated myself for being the cause of it, “I just want to help. _Please_ … let me help.” The last word words came out in almost a whisper.

I wasn’t good at talking about feelings, let alone my own. But I felt like I had caused Owen enough hassle with my cold-heartedness, maybe it was time for me to open up to him. That’s if I remembered how to…

“I just…” I started, making my way over to the sofa and slumping into it, “I feel like I build myself up in my head, y’know?” He quickly joined me and looked at me intently, willing me to go on. “I feel like I’m trying to be this amazing trainer and leader, but I’m really not. I feel like I don’t even know who I am.” I instinctively went to run my hands through my hair but stopped when I realised my head was bandaged up, so I just dropped my hands back into my lap in frustration. “And just then, when I saw how Rex behaved with Alyssa, I – I thought about how anyone can do what I do. I’m really nothing special.”

Owen looked deep in thought, “I don’t know what that fall did to your head,” he smiled, “but you’re full of shit!” He laughed and I frowned at him in confusion.

“What the fuck?” I replied, “I’m trying to open up here, and you’re fucking laughed at me!” I went to stand up, but he grabbed my arm and pulled me back down to the sofa, still chuckling.

“No no, come ‘ere,” he put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me into his side, “you do realise you’re the most talented trainer here, right? No one can do what you do!”

“You and Alyssa manage it!”

“No, me and Alyssa have our own way of training. Don’t forget I train pack animals, I could never bond with a dinosaur one-on-one like you have with Rex and Indy!”

Well Alyssa just did! I saw her out there with Rex, she had Rex following her every command!”

Owen laughed again, “You do realise she does that to be like you, she wants to be like you desperately.”

“What? No, she doesn’t! Half the time she hates me, I’m sure.” I laughed for the first time.

“Oh, fuck off, she idolises you! Everyone in the park does, me included. You’re so in your head all the time you don’t realise the impact you have on the people around you-“

“Oh, believe me, I’m well-aware of the impact I have, I make everyone hate me!”

“You don’t see the _positive_ impact, you only focus on the negative – the arguments and the things that go wrong.”

“What about when I broke Max’s nose? Or when I threatened Hoskins?” I said pointedly.

“Well… you can’t say Max didn’t deserve it,” he laughed, “and Hoskins, well he’s a dickhead too. I’ve had to hold myself back from punching him a few times.”

As much as I wanted to believe what Owen was telling me, I knew the people in this park thought I was a stuck-up bitch. “What about me and you?”

He looked down at me, “What about you and me?” he said softly.

With a sigh I expanded, “What about all the arguments I’ve caused between us. I feel like we’re always at each other’s necks, and it’s always because of my short fuse and the fact that I always think I’m right about everything.”

“Well, that’s only half true. I’m not much better myself.”

I turned my body so I was facing him fully with my left knee in front of me on the sofa between us.

“ _Well_ … why do you think we’re like that?” I asked.

“Maybe because you’re so annoying.” He said without skipping a beat, his face immediately breaking out into a smile.

“Owen!” I gasped, smacking him on his bicep, “you’re the annoying one!”

“ _Wow_ ,” he said sarcastically, “good comeback, genius.”

We laughed for a few seconds, and I remembered what a dork Owen was when we weren’t screaming at each other. It took me back to when I would tease him, when he would wink at me and say flirty things in my eye, and I would inevitably roll my eyes and slap him away in a fit of laughter. Owen had a similar look of nostalgia in his eyes, I guess he had forgotten what it was like too.

“You’re an idiot” I laughed.

“I’m your idiot, _boss_ ” he said with a wink leaning closer to me. “Can you remember how much I used to tease you when we first got assigned to Indy?”

“I can remember how much I _hated_ you for teasing me,” I chuckled, and we sat in comfortable silence together.

Through all the drama I had completely forgotten that Owen and I had spent the night together. Although it seemed like this ordeal had lasted a few days, I recounted the events in my head and realised that it had only been a day. Less than 12 hours ago we had sex! Owen must have saw the shock on my face and asked me, “Is something wrong?”

I looked up at him, my eyes wide and mouth agape in bewilderment. His arm around me suddenly gave me flashbacks to when that same arm had me pinned against my down frame, while his lips kissed every inch of skin they could find. His face was so close to mine, I couldn’t help but stare at his lips in awe. Just last night those lips were nipping at my ear lobe and sucking on the sweet spot just above my collar bone.

“Emily?” he said again, snapping me from my reverie, “What’s wrong? You’re staring at me like I’ve got two heads,” he laughed nervously. “What is it-“

I cut him off by putting my finger to his lips, “Shhh…” I pulled him closer to me and kissed him. My hands settled around his neck like they had last might and his hands immediately snapped to my waist. Everything was coming back to me, his taste, his touch, the feel of his skin against mine. He was mesmerising, and as much as I had tried to push him away, here I was again, giving into him and letting go of my better judgement.

His hands gripped my jaw and he angled my head up to his, he kept me there as his kiss around my lips and around my face, “Oh. My. Mmm. God.” He muttered between kisses. I held onto his hair and pulled me back to face me so I could kiss him again, our tongues fought for dominance and this time I wasn’t letting him have it. I felt as if I was kissing him again for the first time. I pushed him down onto his back and straddled his hips as best I could with my bandaged thigh, I let out a hiss when I felt the cut in my leg sting with pain, “You okay?” he asked immediately, I didn’t respond and just kept kissing him.

His hands ran up my t-shirt and he felt every inch of skin he could while I moved down to his neck and began sucking and placing wet kisses down his throat. “Oh baby,” he moaned quietly, grinding his hips up into mine so I could feel the full effect of what my mouth was doing. I stopped for a second to take in the sight of him, eyes closed, head back, bottom lip pulled between his teeth. “You’re so fucking hot” I breathed out with a smile, to which he laughed and pulled me closer to him for one more kiss before I made my way back down to his neck.

“As much as I’m enjoying this…” he moaned.

“MmmHmm,” I murmured against his skin, relishing in the feeling of his pulse beating beneath my lips.

“I don’t think we should be doing this here.”

“What?” I was surprised. Owen Grady, the ladies man was saying no to sex in an office. “You don’t?” I obviously wasn’t going to carry on if he wasn’t comfortable.

“Wait no! Don’t get me wrong,” he clarified quickly, “I _want_ to. But I want you to get some rest first.”

I pondered this and thought about how good a nap sounded, I might actually take his and the doctors advice and take a break from work for once. “Okay then,” I agreed.

“Huh?” he asked, looking extremely confused, “Really?!”

“Yeah! Really,” I laughed, removing my self carefully from him and adjusting my shirt when I stood up. “Did you want me to fight you over this?” I smiled, he sat up straight and I rested my hands on his shoulders.

“Well no,” his hands came up to rest on the back of my thighs, “I just didn’t expect you to agree with me.”

I laughed and nodded my head, “Yeah I can understand why you might be shocked that I’m not arguing for once.”

“So you’re okay with taking a little break from work?” he asked quizzically.

I thought about it again and let out a happy sigh, “Yes, I really am. Because I full faith in you, and I know you can handle everything while I’m gone.”

His face spread out into a smile, his eyes crinkling at the corners, in amazement. He seemed speechless. I leant down and pressed a kiss to his lips. “You can trust me, I promise.”

“Okay then,” I smiled gleefully, “I’m going home then,” I collected my keys and phone and made my way to the door.

“Woah woah woah,” Owen stepped in front of the door, “I’ll drive you home, don’t think I’m not mad at you for driving here.”

“Seriously?” I groaned, “I made it here in one piece, didn’t I?”

“Yes, seriously. Let’s go,” he opened the door for me to lead the way, “and I don’t even want to know how you got home from the Medical Centre.”

I looked up at him with a cheeky grin, like a child that knew they were in wrong but were proud of themselves nonetheless. “You’re right, you _don’t_ want to know.”


End file.
